Crofton Maryland Real Estate Update - September 2009

Crofton Maryland homeowners want to know, “Is the real estate market stabilizing in Crofton?” Using statistics from the five most recent years, I’ll do my best to answer that for you.

Good news:

• More homes sold/settled during September 2009 in Crofton, Maryland, than September of the two most recent years, although we’re nowhere near the number of the bubble year 2006.
  
• More good news: “Days on Market” are down almost 15% from the same month last year, and
  
• Both the average and median prices are up slightly from September a year ago.

My daughter-in-law, Christine, prepared this chart so we can see a five-year trend in all the areas tracked by Metropolitan Regional Information Services (MRIS). I think this expanded look at the Crofton real estate market is necessary to get a true picture of any trends occurring in the Crofton Maryland real estate market:

Not all Crofton real estate news is good, however:

• The number of new non-contingent contracts last month was lower than any September in recent memory – 17 in 2009 vs. 32 in 2006.
  
• The sold price, as a percentage of list price, is down – also the lowest it’s been any September during a 5–year period.
  
• The number of new listings is nearly double the number of new contracts. Until these numbers are more balanced, we can't realistically expect a stable real estate market.

Looking at all these numbers, that last bullet point is the one things that best answers the question, “Is the real estate market stabilizing in Crofton?” As long as new listings outnumber new non-contingent contracts, we will have a supply and demand problem in Crofton Maryland real estate.

Right now, if you divide the number of September listings (155) by the number of new non-contingent contracts (17), you will see a 9+ month absorption rate. The scariest thing about that may be the fact that we don’t know how home values may change during that 9+ month period – they could go down. For that reason, I encourage anyone putting their home on the market now to be aggressive in pricing their home so it sells sooner rather than later.

This chart and my commentary are based on figures for the entire 21114 zipcode. If you’re thinking of buying or selling a home in the near future, you will want information that’s specific to your neighborhood, or at least to the type of home (detached vs. townhome, for example).

Contact me any time for this information or, if you prefer, you can request a MARKET SNAPSHOT online.

P.S. Thanks, Christine, for preparing this chart of Crofton Maryland real estate statistics for September 2009.