Prices reduced on 40% of Baltimore homes for sale
Baltimore homes for sale with at least one price reduction now make up 40 percent of the market, according to real estate site Trulia.
That's higher than all but three of the country's large cities -- Minneapolis (44 percent), Mesa, Ariz. (43 percent) and Phoeniz, Ariz. (42 percent). Nationally, 27 percent of homes for sale have had at least one price drop.
Average reduction in Baltimore, according to Trulia: 12 percent, or more than $23,000.
Trulia focuses on cities rather than suburbs, but there are plenty of homes in the counties around Baltimore that are listed for less than they once were, too. (You can find pages and pages of "reduced!" listings in Annapolis, Columbia, Owings Mills and other communities.)
HousingTracker.net, a separate site that looks at what people are asking for their homes, says the typical listing price so far this month is $222,000 in the Baltimore metro area as a whole. It was $325,000 in December 2006 -- a more than $100,000 change in four years. (Unfortunately, HousingTracker.net doesn't go back much farther than that.)
While we're on the subject of home prices:
Another real estate site, HomeGain, said 75 percent of Maryland agents it surveyed said they think their sellers' homes are worth less than the sellers do.
About as many of their buyers think homes on the market are overpriced -- even though the agents report that when they list homes for sale, it's usually for less than the number the sellers had in mind.
And on a related note: Almost 300,000 Maryland homes were worth less than their mortgages during the summer, according to estimates from real estate data firm CoreLogic. That's 22 percent of all mortgaged homes, and about the same as the situation in the spring.
Just over 100,000 of those underwater mortgages are in the Baltimore metro area, CoreLogic estimates.
The firm, in its announcement this week, says such "upside down" homeowners "are not likely to behave similarly to homeowners with equity, because their financial interest (the equity) has disappeared and has only a small prospect of returning soon given price trends."
"The lack of equity means upside down homeowners are not likely to maintain and improve their property and are more likely to behave like renters," the firm concludes.
If you owe more than your home is worth, or you're close to that point, do you find yourself loath (or unable) to spend money on your place?
Categories: For sale, Housing stats
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Comments
Price reductions are so broadly prevalent and yet many of my friends and neighbors remain unrealistic about the market. Every conversation I have with friends who are trying to sell their homes or are thinking about it seems to include an exasperated sigh about buyers who offer below the asking price or a naive declaration that the maintenance work they've done, such as replacing an old, leaking roof, constitutes an improvement that should at least maintain what they paid for the house in 2006. Until folks get realistic that they overpaid in the first place and the market is tough, they will remain on the market until being ignored by buyers forces more reductions.
Posted by: Steve | December 16, 2010 8:23 AM
Since I began my house search last winter, I'm seeing a lot of the same houses still on the market. They've reduced their prices a few times, totaling 10-20%, but clearly that's not enough. Some houses have been on the market for 400+ days... With one price drop. It's unreal... Maybe the owner really doesn't NEED to sell? Is just "testing the waters" for an extended period of time? Is just really stubborn? There is no way of telling... There is one house just north of Patterson Park that is very lovely but is in a so-so (bordering on unsafe) neighborhood - - the owner is a realtor and has been dropping the price by $1 almost every day for the past year so it keeps on popping up on "updated listings" search. It's rather amusing. I've noted that foreclosures go quickly though - - the banks know how to price those for quick sale... If sellers are serious and NEED to get out their house - maybe they should price close to comparable foreclosures and sell "as is".
Posted by: SLL | December 16, 2010 12:14 PM
We refer to this market as inverted wealth accumulation. You see, by creating a false sense of it being a buyers market, the real winners will be those that sell at any price. Money is only made when it changes hands. So, staying put beneifts no one. IN order for you to accumulate wealth, you must keep transacting your real estate. I have a colleague that i would like to recommend to my customers, Russ Dalbey. He has a fantastic program called, "Winning in the Cash Flow Business". You know its legit cause its on TV.
Posted by: Creig Northrup | December 16, 2010 12:41 PM
Way to go Craig!
Either you are using this column to crack a sad joke,"Winning in the Cash Flow Business," or you are the lowest form of low. You know as well as I do that the only people who win at these schemes are the people who sell them! What percentage are you receiving from Russ Dalbey for promoting his product? How can you take advantage of people at this point and time by recommending some real estate scheme? And while we're at it, what makes you "the military real estate agent," as your latest ads proclaim? You must be pretty desperate for work to be pushing these new "ventures" on the public!
Posted by: Liz H. | December 28, 2010 12:31 PM
Liz, I can't know with absolute certainty -- given the anonymity of Internet comments -- but I'm pretty sure that "Creig Northrup" above is a parody, not the real estate agent. For a start, he spells his last name differently.
Posted by: Jamie Smith Hopkins | December 28, 2010 1:10 PM