Home sales up, prices down in Baltimore in July. August brings new challenges for the housing market: the stock market slump, debt downgrades, fears of recession.
As reported www.baltimoresun.com foreclosures, high unemployment and tight credit is not enough, prospective home buyers in the Baltimore area got to feed more vigilance Wednesday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 500 points and a new local report showing housing prices continue to decline last month.
The rotation of the stock market - triggered by fears the global economy - also came on the heels of the credit-rating downgrades Standard & Poor's mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the U.S. government, a move that helped push mortgage rates are low is lower but also added to the uncertainty about housing.
Housing market area that has struggled to right himself saw prices fall in July, as they have with little interruption for the past few years, according to figures released Wednesday. The report also shows some signs of stabilization as sales rose in July, with the number of new contracts signed in the Baltimore area increased compared with last year - and for the eighth time in nine months.
But now some are seeing the stock market and economic forces throw new key in the housing market.
Mike Sloan, a real estate agent based in Howard County, said two investors withdraw cash offer on the property Tuesday. Other clients liquidated retirement accounts to get money to buy, only to come up $ 5,000 short when the document is processed on Monday night.
Turmoil makes "people want to jump the fence and see what happens," said Sloan, a partner with Pat Hiban Estate Group at Keller Williams Realty Estate in Columbia Crossroads. "It just makes people nervous."
Robert Reagan, who tried to sell so he and his wife could retire to Florida, wonders if the economic concerns help to explain the fluctuations of foot traffic through the Lutherville-Timonium home. Visits stopped for about one and a half weeks in July, such an argument in Washington ratcheted up negotiation on the debt ceiling. And no one came to open house on Sunday, after the stock market slumped and the S & P lowers credit rating of the country.
Reagents, which places a four-bedroom house on the market for $ 335,000 last year, said he has a good number of prospective buyers through, but no bites so far. He has aggressively lowered the price since February. The first $ 299,000. Then $ 287,900. Wednesday, he knocked it down to just under $ 280,000.
"I'm at the point now where I think I have a home at more than reasonable price," said Reagan, 59. "If it does not sell at this level, I may have to turn around and rent it ... although I do not want to do that, and just wait out the market."
Throughout the Baltimore region, sales rose 12 percent, Metropolitan Regional Information Systems reported Wednesday. That compared with a decrease in the settlement in July 2010 as the impact of a temporary homebuyer tax credit federal stimulate sales decreases. To be eligible for a break, the buyer must sign a contract in April 2010, which caused mostly by the sale closed in June.
Number of contracts signed in July in Baltimore rose 24 percent, a deal which will turn into sales within a few months if all goes well.
The average home sold in the Baltimore area last month went to 5 percent less than the average house sold a year earlier, falling to just under $ 279,000. Four years ago, before the worst of the financial crisis and credit crunch, the average selling price was $ 330,000.
House prices are not falling as fast in the Baltimore area as the nation as a whole before the housing bust, but it was reversed for the seller - and a decrease for the buyer - has ended. The average price for single family homes sold in the Baltimore metro area from April to June fell almost 7 percent compared with the previous year, a decrease of more than twice as steep national decline, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday.
Cindy Ariosa, senior vice president for Long & Foster Baltimore, Maryland, Pennsylvania and South West region, said he regularly heard the seller must bring money to the settlement table to cover the difference between sale price and what is owed on the mortgage. But many homeowners do not have any money. That translates into a short sale, in which banks are required to eat the difference. Foreclosure - also known as "real estate owned" or REOs - is another sign of financial difficulties.
"There are pockets of Baltimore City where 60 percent of the property REOs, short sales," said Ariosa.
Short sales and foreclosures has contributed at least 25 percent of home sales this year in every jurisdiction in the region except Howard County, according to the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors.
It's not just a simple house, either. Ariosa increasingly looking at luxury homes listed as short sales.
"There are some good opportunities if you are in the high-end market now to get incredible deals," he said.
Indeed, some observers say the real estate market can be regarded as a haven for stock-weary investors.
As reported www.baltimoresun.com foreclosures, high unemployment and tight credit is not enough, prospective home buyers in the Baltimore area got to feed more vigilance Wednesday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 500 points and a new local report showing housing prices continue to decline last month.
The rotation of the stock market - triggered by fears the global economy - also came on the heels of the credit-rating downgrades Standard & Poor's mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the U.S. government, a move that helped push mortgage rates are low is lower but also added to the uncertainty about housing.
Housing market area that has struggled to right himself saw prices fall in July, as they have with little interruption for the past few years, according to figures released Wednesday. The report also shows some signs of stabilization as sales rose in July, with the number of new contracts signed in the Baltimore area increased compared with last year - and for the eighth time in nine months.
But now some are seeing the stock market and economic forces throw new key in the housing market.
Mike Sloan, a real estate agent based in Howard County, said two investors withdraw cash offer on the property Tuesday. Other clients liquidated retirement accounts to get money to buy, only to come up $ 5,000 short when the document is processed on Monday night.
Turmoil makes "people want to jump the fence and see what happens," said Sloan, a partner with Pat Hiban Estate Group at Keller Williams Realty Estate in Columbia Crossroads. "It just makes people nervous."
Robert Reagan, who tried to sell so he and his wife could retire to Florida, wonders if the economic concerns help to explain the fluctuations of foot traffic through the Lutherville-Timonium home. Visits stopped for about one and a half weeks in July, such an argument in Washington ratcheted up negotiation on the debt ceiling. And no one came to open house on Sunday, after the stock market slumped and the S & P lowers credit rating of the country.
Reagents, which places a four-bedroom house on the market for $ 335,000 last year, said he has a good number of prospective buyers through, but no bites so far. He has aggressively lowered the price since February. The first $ 299,000. Then $ 287,900. Wednesday, he knocked it down to just under $ 280,000.
"I'm at the point now where I think I have a home at more than reasonable price," said Reagan, 59. "If it does not sell at this level, I may have to turn around and rent it ... although I do not want to do that, and just wait out the market."
Throughout the Baltimore region, sales rose 12 percent, Metropolitan Regional Information Systems reported Wednesday. That compared with a decrease in the settlement in July 2010 as the impact of a temporary homebuyer tax credit federal stimulate sales decreases. To be eligible for a break, the buyer must sign a contract in April 2010, which caused mostly by the sale closed in June.
Number of contracts signed in July in Baltimore rose 24 percent, a deal which will turn into sales within a few months if all goes well.
The average home sold in the Baltimore area last month went to 5 percent less than the average house sold a year earlier, falling to just under $ 279,000. Four years ago, before the worst of the financial crisis and credit crunch, the average selling price was $ 330,000.
House prices are not falling as fast in the Baltimore area as the nation as a whole before the housing bust, but it was reversed for the seller - and a decrease for the buyer - has ended. The average price for single family homes sold in the Baltimore metro area from April to June fell almost 7 percent compared with the previous year, a decrease of more than twice as steep national decline, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday.
Cindy Ariosa, senior vice president for Long & Foster Baltimore, Maryland, Pennsylvania and South West region, said he regularly heard the seller must bring money to the settlement table to cover the difference between sale price and what is owed on the mortgage. But many homeowners do not have any money. That translates into a short sale, in which banks are required to eat the difference. Foreclosure - also known as "real estate owned" or REOs - is another sign of financial difficulties.
"There are pockets of Baltimore City where 60 percent of the property REOs, short sales," said Ariosa.
Short sales and foreclosures has contributed at least 25 percent of home sales this year in every jurisdiction in the region except Howard County, according to the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors.
It's not just a simple house, either. Ariosa increasingly looking at luxury homes listed as short sales.
"There are some good opportunities if you are in the high-end market now to get incredible deals," he said.
Indeed, some observers say the real estate market can be regarded as a haven for stock-weary investors.
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