Back at it again with a little round up of the digestible housing data you want to know. If you need a refresher on real estate terms, I encourage you to re-visit my THIS BLOG that has more detail than you even knew you needed.
The last quarter of the year was a time that I got a few buyers under contract at list price, one buyer of mine received $10,000 towards closing (that’s a really long story I’ll save you from) Why did this happen? Because many people do not want to house hunt, let alone start house hunting, between Thanksgiving and the New Year. So, I swam in on a few properties like a shark and took advantage of their low showing traffic, scoring my buyers a few amazing deals.
The burning question: what in the world is going on with Maryland Real Estate right now?
Our inventory has not replenished and interest rates are low -ergo- the supply/demand is still out of whack. Market health has become more hyperlocal, there are few places where a general blanket statement would apply. Deciding a listing strategy or coming up with a offer terms, more than ever, a house-by-house basis.
This is a skills based market. What is that? I am no rookie and I am not an old dog either, I’m in that sweet spot where hustlers dwell: I am good at what I do AND I am still able to adapt to the changing market conditions and tactics.
What do you think is going to happen Nina?
Think of it like a speedometer. Fall 2019 through Winter of 2020 we went from 25mph to 35mph, what I call ‘typical’. Fall of 2020 was 85mph and then we reached a cruising speed of 100 mph Winter 2021-Fall 2021. This Spring market will be 65mph: still faster than ‘typical’ but slower for our newly determined pace. There will be even more buyer wins this year!
It’s a good time to call me if you…
- have no storage space left in your home
- want to sell your home for a historically high price
- are hearing rumors and too many opinions about real estate
- want to move in 2022
- know someone starting the process who wants house hunting to be a fun experience
- have been following the interest rate vs inventory shortage over the last months and don’t know if it is the best time for YOU to buy/sell
I pulled each number directly from the MLS closed sales between 10/01/2021-12/31/2021. I filtered the search to include only standard sales and divided them into single family homes and town homes + condos as those are two drastically different markets.
The day on market count is up, from 17 to 24 – median is 9 for reference. Sold Price vs List Price is down 1%. Well done Anne Arundel County, you’ve taken a chill pill.
Very little variation here, between Q3 and Q4, all of the numbers are within a single digit from last quarter which is great because I own a town house in AACO and I like seeing it stabilize.
Inventory for Q4 was within 4 homes of Q3, that is bananas! List price / close price ratio bumped up 2%, congratulations Baltimore City single family homes!
I think some Baltimore agents incorrectly categorize their listings…shocker. Someone actually entered the list price for a home as $184,900,000.00 instead of $184,900.00 Friends…we all make mistakes, I will choose to show this person grace. But lord have mercy did that typo mess up the MLS statistics.
I loved being part of these numbers, I got some good deals for my buyers out here this quarter. This is a market where the day on market count actually went down, meaning, it is moving more competitively here during one of the slowest times of the year.
Dang, the median price went down $10k (4% in this case) I wouldn’t fret over this though. The Baltimore Co TH + Condo market will always stabilize. The County is in the shape of a neck pillow that we always bring on the airplane and never use; meaning it is designed to support a lot of infrastructure (DoD employees and every local college student). Great place to own a rental home.
I do not like getting outbid in Howard County. Day on market is single digits here, even during the holiday season and the inventory closed only 634 homes! That’s about 200 hundred fewer homes closed than Q3. Less supply and more demand. Gross.
I do not like getting outbid in Howard County. Oh, did you think I typed that twice by accident? NO, I was also outbid in the TH market numerous time in Q4. It’s like a secret society of real estate agents, their main requirement is that you don’t respond to calls or emails; I’ll simply never be bad enough to be part of it. Ok Bitter Betty is done here.
Look at the median purchase price on that one more time. See how it is way higher than the rest of the MD Counties? I know that is pretty obvious, but it isn’t as if the homes are that much bigger. Proximity to DC is a huge factor and MoCo has always been more expensive. This is one of the few counties where more single family homes sold than townhouse + condos combine.
Sold vs List is right at 100% and this is for a few reasons, this does not mean that things are going at asking price. In many cases, homes are ‘listed and sold simultaneously’ which means they were pocket deals- either the buyer or the owner already found someone to make the purchase happen and they uploaded it with the closed price. From my experience here, the homes that are actively listed are always higher than the comparable closed sales. Agents push the envelope in pricing here more than other places, so instead of going drastically over the asking price buyers are full waiving contingencies and/or paying seller transfer costs to sweeten their deal.
So…you scrolled to the bottom for a synopsis
…or you fell asleep reading this and your cat’s paw is slamming the space bar to get your attention.
- if you’re buying a home this year, you’re going to be OK I promise, there is still plenty of time and plenty of fun to be had along the way
- prepare to pay all of your closing costs (around 3.5% of purchase price) and possibly the extra 0.5% to cover the seller transfer.
- waiving appraisals, while terrifying, is one of the best ways to win in a multiple offer scenario
- inspections are essentially for informational purposes only
- rates are INSANELY low, so you as a buyer get that longterm benefit- I’m talking thousands and thousands of dollars over the course of your mortgage if you buy now
- It is POPPING in Maryland with every county closing at over 100% of the list price
