See what's happening in your area
Today's story about the housing market comes with a nifty searchable database of home sales and prices for all ZIP codes in the Baltimore metro area that had more than a handful of sales in the first half of 2007 and 2008. Wonk or not, you might like to try it out.
And here's a taste of the home-sales story, which looks how things stand vs. a year ago and also vs. the frenzied days back in '05:
The numbers show a sharp change since the peak of buying three years ago. Sales have dropped by at least half in one out of three communities in the metro area. Average sale prices are down in one out of five communities compared with 2005.
Another trend that might seem counterintuitive: Some buyers are getting outbid for the homes they want. That's not necessarily escalating values vs. a few years ago, but it's still startling people who expected a lack of competition:
"We wanted ... an area where the school districts were good based on state ratings," said Christine McDonough. "We found there were too many other people waiting for the same thing."
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Comments
Charlotte has been doing pretty good...thank God! We just had a storm pass through, and it was needed because of the drought we been having. Our real estate market was doing good the whole year, and now it's stalling a bit. Hopefully, things will pick up next year for us
Posted by: Charlotte Mortgage | August 28, 2008 4:45 PM