September home sales
New numbers from Metropolitan Regional Information Systems show home sales falling about 2 percent from a year ago, a sharp change after months of losses in the neighborhood of 30 percent. Those big declines started in September 2007 as lenders clamped down on borrowing rules, which means we're no longer comparing sales to pre-crunch days.
Average prices dropped 5.9 percent in the metro area, sliding below September 2005 values. The average price last month was about $296,000 vs. nearly $304,000 three years earlier.
The biggest decline in average price came in Carroll County, which was down 17 percent. Howard County recorded the lone increase -- 3.3 percent -- but its median price dropped, so you might take that with a grain of salt.
Both Howard and Carroll saw sales jump -- particularly Howard, up 26 percent. And sales were almost even in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.
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Comments
It seems to me that the September homes sales are a little misleading. The year over years sales have declined less but compare to 2006 sales are still much lower. If we viewed that sales were low last year the since it declined again it is actually worse then last year at this time.
IT's STLL BAD!
Posted by: Joe | October 10, 2008 3:45 PM
Yeah, economists are saying this is no proof of a turnaround. That's why I made sure to point out that this is the first time both months in the year-over-year comparison are within the credit crunch period. The September 2007 numbers were way below September '06.
Posted by: Jamie Smith Hopkins | October 10, 2008 3:50 PM