Is the Housing Inventory High?

IS THE HOUSING INVENTORY HIGH?

Let us start with an axiom about the real estate market: On average everybody moves every 5 years. Now let us put numbers behind this assumption to give it more meaning. For a given set of 100 houses, each one will be sold once within a 5 year period. This means that 20 of these houses will be sold every year. In an average market, the house will sell within about 60 days. If the number of houses on the market is consistent during the course of the year, then at any given time during the course of the year, the number of houses from our group of 100 would be between 3 and 4. In other words, at any given time during an average market, the percentage of houses on the market is about 4%.

Now let us look at some specific markets on the specific date of 2-10-2008. In Baltimore City in the specific neighborhood of Canton, there were 271 properties which weere actively listed for sale. In the neighborhood of Canton there are more than 5700 properties. As a percentage this is about 4.75% of the houses which were on the market. In reality, the 4% average from a normal market would likely fluctuate over the course of the year and would most likely be higher during the traditionally slower winter months, such that 4.75% is probably within a normal variation.

Now let us look at one more market to see how it was doing on the same date. In Northern Baltimore County, there were 129 properties which were actively listed for sale. In this same region there are more than 9400 properties. As a percentage this is about 1.4% of the houses which were on the market.

This is a limited sample, but, at least, in these two areas the data shows that the inventory is not high.

Call Ron at 410-935-5844 for more facts and analysis about the real estate market, especially as it may pertain to your specific situation.