How can I determine what the average rental price for a townhouse in Burtonsville Maryland is? Is there a website that can tell me this? Would there be a range of high to low - this is a three bedroom narrow but tall townhouse in blackburn village

I'm not sure if that's the sort of question the economists are expecting! But if you type "apartment" into a search engine, you'll get a lot of "for rent" sites that will give you an idea of what places in Burtonsville are going for. You might also try Craigslist.

Real estate agents can also give you details, because a number of properties are listed for rent on the multiple-listing service.

Just to refine my first question - Hasn't there been a decrease in rental rates over the last 12-24 months in the Montgomery County or Howard County area? Does an agency keep track of this information and how can I obtain this information?

Thanks

I don't follow Montgomery County, so I can't say. The last time I saw rent stats for the Baltimore metro area, they ranged from down a bit to up a bit.

The thing is, these were overarching averages, so they won't do you much good with your specific question. I haven't found any organization with great neighborhood-level stats on rentals, especially ones that aren't apartments. Thus my suggestions in the comment above.

Prof. Shiller:

In your opinion,
will asset-market extreme mispricing be well-deterred,
if and when
real inflation-adjusted asset-market price histories
are well-apparent to the people?

Ed Hamilton, Ph.D.

PS Shiller does charts of these histories. Also see first chart here:
http://homepage.mac.com/ttsmyf/RD_RJShomes_PSav.html

How can I reasonably know the right selling price for my home when few homes have sold in the neighborhood and all are smaller? I seem to have the biggest house in the immediate neighborhood, but because it is on an inside corner lot it looks like the smallest one.

I liked the house because it looks small from the front and not worth breaking into, while it actually has the space we wanted hidden behind the small frontage with garage. The question is how do other buyers look at this kind of home? Do they value this characteristic or figure it doesn't look upscale enough for their image because the front doesn't reflect the size of the home?

I have the impression that inside and outside corner lots don't fetch the kinds of prices that property appraisers attach to them.

I have read that homes in Detroit, Michigan are selling for a median price now of $4,000. What keeps retirees and immigrant small business owners from snapping up these homes for retirement. Is it the first of being the last one to leave?