Today we’ve got an update for you on the national real estate market and how it affects our local market here in the Baltimore metro area.
I read recently that the collective national real estate average price is higher than it has ever been. The National Association of Realtors also reported that inventory is the lowest it has been since they started tracking it in 1999. With supply and demand, most would expect prices to go up. Because of the low inventory, many economists predict that prices will go down, but so will the number of transactions.
Homebuilder confidence is at an all-time high, which has to do with expecting decreased regulations. They’re hoping it will make it less expensive and easier to build homes, basically. Job reports look strong; we added 235,000 new jobs in February.
So there’s a lot of encouraging news going on nationally, but what does it mean to our local market?
To understand this, I think it’s important to understand the history of the recent market crash. A lot of things went south in cities like New York and Miami, despite the thought that real estate trends start on the West Coast and move east. However, I believe that’s what’s going on right now. Although national real estate prices are at an all-time high (and up 20% in the last three years), we haven’t seen that in the Baltimore market. I think that’s because we’re typically behind about two to three years. During the market crash prices didn’t bottom out until 2011.
If you look at prices in the metro area for the last few years, we’ve been pretty flat. Now though, we’re starting to see that appreciation that everyone has been hoping and waiting for. I think it’s reasonable to believe that we’re two or three years behind the appreciation trend and that we’re just now starting to see the start of some really good times in our market with prices going up.
We definitely have an inventory issue, which makes working with an experienced real estate agent extremely important right now if you plan to buy or sell a home. If you’re interested in finding out what your house is worth and what it might look like in the next three or four years, give me a call or send me an email. I’d be glad to help.