MoCoRealEstate

Market Updates Category

Montgomery County Real Estate at a Glance

August 6th, 2009 Categories: Market Updates

You’ve heard it a zillion times – real estate is local.  Another common nugget of real estate wisdom – “location, location, location”.  In Montgomery County, a home’s location and price range are the primary factors driving demand.  To cut to the chase and provide a simple overview of our market, I analyzed all contracts from February through the end of July and compared sales activity.  The results are summarized in the following chart:

Busiest Zip Codes in Montgomery County

Here’s the top 10 by the number of contracts ratified over the last six months.  Activity in these zip codes represents 53% of all contracts for Montgomery County. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Bruce Lemieux | Leave A Comment

Montgomery County Inventory Melting Away

July 18th, 2009 Categories: Market Updates

As a kid, the Wicked Witch of the West and her troop of flying monkeys terrified me.  I thought of Ms. West when looking at this month’s stats.  For a home seller, excessive inventory of available homes is pure evil that results in lower sale prices and longer days on the market.  I find that high inventory also erodes buyer confidence.  Motivated buyers can stay on the sidelines when they continue to see lots of homes that aren’t selling.  “Once I buy, would I ever be able to sell?” they think.  As homes start selling, more buyers get in the market.  I think we’re seeing that happen here.

Every month this year we’ve seen inventory melt away.  From mid June to mid July, total inventory went down Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Bruce Lemieux | 1 Comment »

Metro D.C. Unemployment Up in 2009

July 7th, 2009 Categories: Market Updates

A strong job market is essential for a healthy real estate market.  The metro D.C. area continues to have the lowest unemployment of the largest 15 metropolitan areas in the U.S.  Compared to unemployment in November, however, the stats show that we’re not immune to job losses experienced throughout the country.

A higher jobless rate can drive up the rate of foreclosures. And, with fewer jobs we see fewer job relocations which reduce the number of new home buyers coming into the area .
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Do you have questions about the Montgomery County real estate market? Call us at 301-527-9079 or send an email for more info about buying, selling and living in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Posted by Bruce Lemieux | Leave A Comment

Montgomery County Market Update

June 28th, 2009 Categories: Market Updates

We’re halfway into 2009 so it’s a great time to take a look at the real estate market in Montgomery County.  Especially compared to other areas, our overall market is very healthy.  Here’s an overview of the inventory and the number of contracts over the last six month by price range for all home types in the County.

What’s hot in the County? Single family homes priced under $400,000 and townhomes in all price points under $700,000 have three months or less available inventory.  There’s 2 months or less inventory in the following areas and price points:

• Bethesda - Homes priced $600,000 to $700,000
• North Potomac – Homes priced $600,000 to $800,000
• Potomac – Homes Priced under $600,000
• Olney – Homes Priced $300,000 to $400,000
• Germantown – Homes priced $300,000 to $500,000

What’s not? Inventory is relatively high for all condos in all price points.  Also, higher-priced homes Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Bruce Lemieux | Leave A Comment

Montgomery County inventory dwindles with a jump in distress sales

June 15th, 2009 Categories: Market Updates

Looking at a mid-June snapshot of our market, overall inventory for available homes in Montgomery County continues to trend down — 10% below January’s inventory. The number of distress sales, however, spiked up to over 1,000 units to about 25% of the total.

The obvious question is “what drove this spike in distress inventory?”  A jump in interest rates would have an impact, but I would expect Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Bruce Lemieux | Leave A Comment

Housing inventory continues to shrink in Montgomery County

May 24th, 2009 Categories: Market Updates

Does it seem like there are fewer homes available in Montgomery County?  Jeannette and I have had the same feeling while working with our buyers over the last several weeks.  A snapshot of housing inventory confirms that supply continues to shrink.  From mid April to mid May, the total inventory of available homes went down to just over 4,300 homes – a reduction of 5%.  The number of distress and bank properties went down even more – down 13% from last month.

I absolutely do believe that we’ve found a bottom for entry level homes in Montgomery County.  We’ve seen sustained transaction volume there and distress properties are definitely being removed from the market.  Anecdotally, I feel like the market for homes in the $500Ks to $600Ks are firming up as well.  This is definitely the case in North Potomac, Darnestown and Germantown.  I’ll run some stats soon to see if the data backs me up on this.

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Do you have questions about the Montgomery County real estate market? Call us at 301-527-9079 or send an email for more info about buying, selling and living in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Posted by Bruce Lemieux | Leave A Comment

Montgomery County inventory of distressed properties evaporating

April 13th, 2009 Categories: Market Updates

Taking a snapshot at total inventory in Montgomery County, inventory of distress sales continues its downward spiral.  The drivers:  low prices and low interest rates.  Most activity is still taking place at the lower end of the market.

Will this trend continue?  I think so.  Employment is still relatively strong and rates are expected to stay low for months.  With dwindling supplies of ‘bargain’ homes, I would expect to see more multiple contracts on the best deals.
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Do you have questions about the Montgomery County real estate market? Call us at 301-527-9079 or send an email for more info about buying, selling and living in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Posted by Bruce Lemieux | Leave A Comment

Should you offer $1M on a $1.2M listing?

April 10th, 2009 Categories: Buying, Market Updates

How low can I go when making a purchase offer?

I get this question a lot these days.  I took a detailed look at all sales for 2008 and provided an analysis for list-to-sales price ratios for Montgomery County.  This provided a good overview for the County, but it left basic questions unanswered:

• How does a home’s ‘days on market’ impact reductions?
• Can a buyer get bigger reductions on more expensive homes?
• Does the available inventory affect price reductions?

In this article, we’ll drill into the statistics and get some answers. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Bruce Lemieux | 2 Comments »

The Lure of Bargains for Upper Bracket Homes

April 1st, 2009 Categories: Luxury Homes, Market Updates

Sometimes a bargain is just too seductive too ignore.  Reduced prices for upper bracket homes in Montgomery County can be a strong lure inviting buyer interest based on price alone.  Still, are these bargains really a great deal?  As with most things in life, the answer is “it depends”.

Overall for Montgomery County, there are 357 homes priced over $1.3M available, and 51 in this price range have gone under contract from January 1st through March 31st. So for the county, we currently have about 22 months’ inventory.  90% of all home sale activity in this price range takes place in the Bethesda and Potomac areas:

So is that home really a great deal for you? Bargains are definitely out there, but with so many homes available, make sure you have an in-depth understanding of the market for your areas of interest.  And, above all, make sure that a getting a “deal” doesn’t distract you from finding the right home for your needs.
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Do you have questions about upper bracket homes in Montgomery County? Call us at 301-527-9079 or send an email for more info about buying, selling and living in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Posted by Bruce Lemieux | Leave A Comment

2009 Real Estate Survival Guide for Montgomery County

February 17th, 2009 Categories: Market Updates

Even though we’re about six weeks into 2009, the upcoming Spring market heralds the “real” start of our real estate market.  Although buyers and sellers are being continually battered by bad news, know that homes are still selling in Montgomery County. In fact, more homes sold the 2nd half of 2008 compared to the same period in 2007 in Montgomery County. Still, expect 2009 to be a rocky year. Here’s a quick guide to help navigate our market. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Bruce Lemieux | Leave A Comment

Montgomery County homebuyers want three things: Price, Price and Price.

February 8th, 2009 Categories: Market Updates

From the overview of Montgomery County sales stats from January, we see that over the last four months, contracts have increased 7% compared to the same period last year.  We also see more activity in lower price ranges.  But Montgomery County is a big place, so what’s driving sales in different areas of the county.

Price.

OK, but what about closer-in locations that have held their value better?

Price and Price.

What about homes in higher price brackets? Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Bruce Lemieux | Leave A Comment

January’s sales activity: the good and the bad

February 6th, 2009 Categories: Market Updates

Home sales statistics for the last four months for Montgomery County are a good-news-bad-news story.  Let’s start with the good news.

• Compared to the last four months this time last year, overall sales activity increased over 7%.
• As a sign that buyers may be starting to shake off their buying blues, contracts for December and January were much stronger up 28% and 13% respectively.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Bruce Lemieux | 1 Comment »

Our job market measures-up pretty well

January 25th, 2009 Categories: Market Updates

First the mortgage meltdown in the fall of 2007.  Then, the financial crisis.  Now companies are laying off scores of employees driving up the unemployment rate.  This last hit can be a killer for a real estate market.  You aren’t going to buy a home if you don’t have a job.  But all areas in the U.S. are not affected the same way.  The Washington D.C. job market is a bright spot in a the national economy. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Bruce Lemieux | 1 Comment »

Distress Sales in Montgomery County – How bad is it?

January 18th, 2009 Categories: Foreclosures, Market Updates

Just about every day passes with another statistic about area foreclosures.  News snippets rarely provide a good perspective on our local market, so we took a detailed look at the total number of bank-owned and distress listings on the market in Montgomery County.  As posted in December, we saw signs of an improving market with an increase in the number of contracts the 2nd half of 2008 compared to 2007.  However, until distress and bank properties are reduced to a smaller percentage of available inventory, Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Bruce Lemieux | 2 Comments »

More signs of stability

December 16th, 2008 Categories: Market Updates

“When will we hit bottom?” We get that question a lot from home buyers and sellers in Montgomery County.  I think a better question is “When will the local real estate market stabilize?”. There won’t be a specific date that marks this transformation, but we will observe a time period with increased home sales and a stablization of the inventory of available homes.  Two observations tell me that we are seeing signs of a more stable market.

The first good sign is increasing sales activity for entry-level homes in our market.  From Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Bruce Lemieux | Leave A Comment

And the most popular price for a Montgomery County home is…

November 26th, 2008 Categories: Market Updates

For people relocating to Montgomery County, buyers can get mixed messages about our true home values.  Most entry level housing is priced from $300,000 to $500,000.  Looking at total sales volume, the volume of homes sold up to $500,000 is about the same has homes selling from $500,000 to $1,000,000.  Of course, we also have multi-million dollar sales Read the rest of this entry »

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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 Read the rest of this entry »

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Montgomery County weekly market update

November 18th, 2008 Categories: Market Updates

Here’s the first weekly snapshot the current real estate market for Montgomery County, Maryland. There are some trends that stand out:

• For the four weeks from October 20th through November 16th, 668 homes went under contract.  This is a healthy 15% higher than the 579 sales during the same period in 2007.

Read the rest of this entry »

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