Home prices up for smaller single-family homes?
It might be a statistical quirk, but the average price for small single-family houses in the Baltimore metro area -- two bedrooms or less -- jumped more than 20 percent in October.
This October: about $227,000. Last October: about $187,000.
Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, which runs the region's multiple-listing service, tracks the change in average price by a variety of home types, and everything else is down year-over-year. But there seems to be a trend of single-family house prices holding up better -- at least on average -- than everything else.
Consider townhouses and rowhouses:
Condos -- or, more precisely, condos, coops and properties with ground rent -- dropped 9 percent on average, to $165,000.
Three-bedroom single-family houses, meanwhile, saw a small drop in average price, down under 2 percent to $265,000. Houses with four or more bedrooms also dropped less than 2 percent, to an average price of $429,000.
So what's driving the difference? I suppose if distress sales made up a bigger share of condos and attached homes that sold in October than houses, that would mean a bigger downward effect on prices. (Statistically speaking, that is -- I don't have the foreclosure and short sale breakout by home type, so I don't know if that's actually happening.) But it could simply be buyer preference at work. (We discussed similar trends back in July.)
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Comments
The basic truisms about SFH's and the "supply and demand" will rule and not only in Baltimore if other things are equal in the market (they never are though).
The small places can make great rentals and serve an immediate term need for housing... but as you say"buyer preference".
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On this buyers preferences: For a full year now I've been looking for opportunities to buy a small, low risk place in other city for myself and doing so all over the US.As an REO most likely.
It started in Florida (to snowbird) but then extended to include parts of California and Oregon (son lives in CA) New York, Virginia and North Carolina (along the mountain ranges from Utica to Asheville).
With very few exceptions everything at the low end of these markets was in need of substantial (non cosmetic) work often work that would require scrapping so called "improvements" done during the last sell/buy cycle when the bad loans were originated as well. (Rough houses had "lipstick put on a pig" rather than actually being repaired.)
The few exceptions to this rule, if also lucky enough to be located well (location location location still applies) had no difficulty getting better prices. There were still hard limits on those prices to be sure... either as a raw number or $/sf.. something that could be a quick filter tool.
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Long story short... I haven't bought yet. I'm shifted back to a new construction plan that might include a tear down and probably in Oregon where I'm headed after I leave Texas come spring.
In Austin now.
Posted by: MrRational | December 3, 2010 4:24 PM
There are distress sales EVERYWHERE. Who wants to pay full price for the same house that is selling for half as a distress sale? If you aren't in foreclosure and are trying to sell, you are SCREWED!!!! Walk away while you still can. If you wait much longer, you will end up paying income taxes if you decide to walk later on. The Debt Forgiveness Act was passed FOR THE HOMEOWNER so YOU CAN WALK AWAY WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES. If the banks look out for their best interest, YOU SHOULD TOO!!!! Even if you walk away, you can buy again in THREE YEARS!!!! It will be worth it.
Posted by: "Nutty Bar" | December 4, 2010 6:00 PM