MoCoRealEstate

Three-times the sales compared to last year? Isn’t this a slow market?

November 20th, 2008 Categories: Foreclosures, Germantown, Market Updates, Silver Spring

Entry-level housing in Montgomery County is heating-up.  Looking at the last four weeks, the number of contracts in many parts of Montgomery County is more than tripled compared to this time last year for homes priced under $300,000.  As inventory has climbed, foreclosures and distress sales have applied downward pressure on prices in this segment.

So is this a harbinger that we’re reaching the illusive “bottom” of the real estate market? To me, it’s clear this is a sign that demand for homes in Montgomery County is fundamentally strong.  For most people who live and work here, a home purchase has simply been too expensive.  As prices have come down, homes are now within reach to more people.  So it’s a great sign that buyers are getting into the market in such a turbulent time.  Still, there’s many homes on the market.  For the nine zip codes included in the chart, there are nearly 1,400 homes available in that price range.  If the sales volume continues to increase over the next several months as new homes enter the market, then we can be more confident that we’re finding the floor in our market.

What trends do you see for entry level housing in Montgomery County?  Are you beginning to be hopeful, or do you see harder times ahead?  Add a comment and let me know your thoughts.

Posted by Bruce Lemieux

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 20th, 2008 at 8:52 am and is filed under Foreclosures, Germantown, Market Updates, Silver Spring. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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