"Sticky" land prices
It takes less money than it did in 2006 to put a house together, thanks to a decline in the cost of raw materials. But what about the land you need to put that house on?
"Land prices are another story," says Kenneth Wenhold, director of the Mid-Atlantic region for Metrostudy, a housing-industry market research firm. "They're very easy to go up. It's very hard for them to go down."
In economist-speak, they're "sticky." (So, economists say, are home prices, though not as sticky as many assumed three years ago.)
"We really haven't seen significant declines" in sale prices, Wenhold said. "There are a lot of people who are shopping properties, and the prices might be discounted slightly, but not to the extent that the market will bear."
He has an interesting point to make about Maryland's situation.
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