We Buy Houses!

Here I go again.. I know like I sound like a broken record… but – prices of homes in Prince Georges County have, once again, declined from the previous year – almost 6% since last November, falling to $183,235. Prince Georges County has experienced one of the steepest declines in home values, in the area, over the past six years, with some areas seeing values nearly cut in half. Get this – in August of 2006 the average sales price was a whopping $342,492! While prices are down homes sold in November – 626 – were up 9% from the previous November. These homes remained on the market for 114 days – an increase of 24% and sellers are only getting about 90% of what they list their house for. This means that if the seller lists his or her home for $100,000 they will end up selling it for $90,000.  In terms of supply, in October, 2011 there were 626 homes sold.  When you divide this into the number of active listings, this signifies a 6-month supply of houses. This means that if buyers continued to buy at the same pace as they did in October each month going forward and there were no new homes placed on the market for sale the supply of houses for sale would run out in 6 months. This is in the healthy range for supply. The number of homes for sale has decreased over 21% from a year ago to 3,829 while the number of homes that came on the market decreased 12% to 959 homes. The most dramatic percentage change in the numbers I track was the number of new contracts that buyers placed on homes for sale – they increased from 30% from a year ago from 755 to 984.  This is an indication that buyer activity has increased significantly from a year ago. This could be a combination of extremely low interest rates coupled with average sales prices declining and buyer’s perception that we are at the bottom of the pricing cycle and prices will likely increase. Even with this surge in activity, if you are a buyer in Prince Georges County you will find the market is in your favor. Sellers will need to wait longer and expect less from the sale of their home. If you have any questions about this information or selling your Prince Georges house fast please call us at the number above.

Prince Georges County, MD	November-2011	November-2010	% Change
Avg Sold Price	$183,235	$195,232	-6.14%
Median Sold Price	$163,400	$176,450	-7.40%
Units Sold	626	574	9.06%
Avg Days on Market	114	92	23.91%
Avg Sold Price to List Price	89.8%	90.7%	-0.98%
Active Listings	3,829	4,883	-21.59%
New Listings	959	1,093	-12.26%
New Pendings	984	755	30.33%