Looking (or lookylooing)
Realtor.com searches for Baltimore-area homes in August rose nearly 82 percent from a year earlier, according to the website. That compares with a 76 percent increase nationally.
How much is serious looking vs. curiosity, one can only guess. There's always a lag time between looking and buying.
Other stats from August, for comparison's sake: Sales dropped 29 percent (according to MRIS), and the median asking price for homes on the market (according to HousingTracker.net) was $286,000, down 10 percent from a year earlier.
If you're researching homes for sale online, chime in: Why are you looking? What are you looking for?
Comments
I am looking to buy a house. AND I'm looking for a seller who isn't living in fantasy land. If I look at one more house where the seller says "but the one down the street sold for this much last year", I'll scream.
Posted by: Anon | September 26, 2008 11:20 AM
Just looking out of curiosity. Have enough saved to pay cash, but still do not see house prices in a realistic range. Houses should be 2-3 times annual salary max. That is the ultimate bottom line. When they approach this my looking will become serious.
Posted by: JT | September 26, 2008 11:42 AM
Anon - it would be funny if it weren't so sad. In the election year though, maybe such sellers could demand founding an agency called "The Down The Street's Last Year's Price Maintenance Agency".
Posted by: january1954 | September 26, 2008 11:52 AM
January 1954,
That could happen, don't joke. It seems as if the congress is in the pockets of the NAR. God help us all.
Look at them down there trying to prop up these ridiculous prices. Shame on them all.
Posted by: Anon | September 26, 2008 5:57 PM
I'm keeping an eye on prices in the area to which I want to move. I should be ready to purchase sometime in the late spring (as in having an adequate down-payment), and don't want to have any surprises. Should someone say "this house just went on the market", I want to be in a position to say, "yeah, after not having sold for six months, then being taken off,"
if that is the case.
Also, it's fun to daydream.
Posted by: Cheap Jim | September 28, 2008 3:18 PM
Congrats, Cheap Jim -- yours is the 1,000th comment on this blog.
Alas, there's no prize. But feel free to suggest a blog topic.
Posted by: Jamie Smith Hopkins | September 28, 2008 3:45 PM
I've been keeping an eye on listing status and prices in the zip codes I've been interested in for over a year now. Mostly, I'm looking for indications that this overvalued madness in home prices is on its way out. I'm similar to cheap jim.
Posted by: dave | September 29, 2008 2:09 PM