The Real Estate Wonk: Baltimore County's housing market - Baltimore homes, apartments, real estate: Buying, selling, renting and housing news from reporter Jamie Smith Hopkins

Baltimore County home sales are way down from where they were at the height of the housing bubble, like the rest of the region. Unlike the rest of the region, the county's home sales are also way lower now than they were as far back as 1998.

For a (very) occasional blog-post series, I've been crunching numbers at a county level for the month of June to compare and contrast over the years. See Anne Arundel here and Baltimore City here. Today it's Baltimore County's turn.

The number of Baltimore County homes sold this June was down 30 percent from June 1998, when Metropolitan Regional Information Systems began tracking the region. That's the biggest drop in the metro area.

Pricey Howard County was close, with a 28 percent drop, but no other jurisdiction saw anywhere near that big of a decline. (One actually saw a gain in sales, but you'll have to wait until it's that county's turn to find out which ... or check the numbers yourself.)

Here's what Baltimore County's home sales looks like over the years:

And here's the change in average and median prices:

Prices are down 22 percent on average since the peak in 2007. They're down a bit more -- 26 percent -- if you're looking at the median sales price.

But by either measure, prices are still about 65 percent higher than they were in 1998.

Next up: Carroll County.

Comments

In "normal times" (is there ever such a thing)...what is the typical Baltimore area yearly appreciation in housing price?

I ask because if the prices currently 65% higher than in 1998...that is equivalent to a steady yearly increase of 4% over the same 13 year time span. An average annual increase of 4% in a growing area like Baltimore county sounds very reasonable...probably low (I hope). So prices are where they would be without the bubble, or lower (relative to 1998)...is that analysis correct?

Posted by: Larry | September 21, 2011 1:04 PM

Hi, Larry -- as you note, it's hard to get at "normal." The MRIS figures don't go back very far, unfortunately.The average price rose about 1.5 percent in '99, 2.4 percent in 2000 and 3.3 percent in 2001. (You can see the effect of the bubble begin to seep in the following year -- prices jumped 9 percent.)

I've heard it said that non-bubble home prices generally rise at about the rate of inflation, which of course has varied over the years.

Posted by: Jamie Smith Hopkins | September 21, 2011 10:50 PM

Thanks Jamie, that's interesting. I believe that the US inflation rate in August was 3.8%...I think inflation will remain low for a number of years.

Posted by: Larry | September 26, 2011 12:02 PM