Baltimore-area rental and condo market in early '10
New condos have taken it on the chin in this housing market, but first-quarter sales in the Baltimore metro area were the highest in three years, according to real estate information firm Delta Associates. (There were 119 "net" deals, which accounts for contracts that fell through.)
About 1,700 new condos are ready for occupancy or under construction, so Delta doesn't expect "price traction" until next year at the earliest. Asking prices were down 4.2 percent from a year earlier.
On the up side, the inventory was nearly 2,700 a year ago. Big drop since then.
Here's one vote of confidence that the condo market is turning around: The developers of a 252-unit project planned in Anne Arundel County have switched it from apartments to condos. (A lot of projects have gone the other way since the bubble popped.)
The recession is still weighing on the apartment market. Class-A rental vacancy rates in the metro area bumped upward in the first quarter to 5.6 percent, though Delta says that's a lot better than the national rate of 8.2 percent.
Rents rose 1.6 percent in the Baltimore suburbs vs. a year ago but fell 4.8 percent in the neighborhoods where city apartment complexes are clustered -- downtown, Fells Point and the Inner Harbor.
That's the snapshot Delta is offering. Personal experiences gladly accepted in the comments.
Sign up for the At Home newsletter 
Comments
Class A rental vacancy rates certainly haven't brought the prices down at all. I'm on the rental market again right now, and prices haven't gone down at all from last year as I was hoping. Seems like they may have even gone up! Looking like I'll be staying in my "historical" aka Class D- apartment for another year, haha.
Posted by: kateebee | April 8, 2010 9:50 AM
As a former realtor and recent condo buyer the problem I am hearing from still practicing Realtors is buyers not being able to get mortgages because of "condo fees". I got lucky and ended up in a building with reasonable condo fees, but some Condos in Baltimore have fees higher then apartment rents.. Prices have fallen so much in some cases that some condos near pikesville have fee's higher then the owners mortgage payment after 20% down (I actually had to find a more expensive place to get a lower condo fee and luckily it all worked out with a $400 a month condo fee and a $945 dollar a month mortgage payment 2br 2 bath). 2 condos I almost wrote on in the pikesville area had condo fees over 800.00 a month!!!
Posted by: operainBaltimore | April 8, 2010 2:09 PM
Assuming a mortgage interest rate of 5%, you can backwards cap rate a condo fee into it's equivalent price increase at about $100 monthly condo fee equal to increasing the sales price by $20,000.
So for the extreme example of an $800/mo condo fee, it's just the same as borrowing an additional $160,000.
Posted by: Josh Dowlut | April 8, 2010 6:34 PM
Don't worry. The recession is over. Although Bank of America will reduce your principal balance, they are now going to increase their foreclosures from 7,500 a month to 45,000 per month nationally. Although they have 1.2 million foreclosures that need to be filed, they will only get to about half of them. As more foreclosures make their way through from other lenders as well, condo fees will sky rocket as more homeowners will not pay their HOA fee. This has already created a short fall. The only way to recoup that money is to continue raising HOA fees. Although values may go down, I am sure your property taxes won't.
http://www.irvinehousingblog.com/blog/comments/bank-of-america-to-increase-foreclosure-rate-by-600-in-2010/
Posted by: Frank Rizzo | April 9, 2010 7:14 AM