Maryland Home Market Remains Active
Being Maryland is directly adjacent to the most powerful city in the world, Washington D.C., we tend to be more in tune with politics than the rest of the country. 2016 has certainly been viewed by many as the most divided and economic uncertain election in our lives. It seems the country has never been more divided and at the center of the divide is the health of our economy. Through the political unrest there does not seem to be any waiver in consumer confidence in the Maryland home buying market.
Consumer confidence as recorded by the Conference Board has hit a decade high since 2007, right before the great recession. A mixture of steady job growth, increasing wages, and the lowest mortgage rates ever recorded in America has seemed to give Maryland a boost in confidence.
Faster home sale growth has been recorded in Howard County 20%, Anne Arundel County 16%, and Baltimore city 14% year over year. Even the counties of Charles, Frederick, and Montgomery have experienced double digit growth.
For many years the first time home buyer market was very slow, but now with rising employment, wages, and easing credit guidelines the first time home buyers are starting to come out in force not only buying homes, but buying the most expensive homes they can afford. This is putting pressure on the median and average home sale prices and for the first time in the last 10 years causing a decline in inventory and edging list prices higher.
A Better Outlook
For the first time since recent memory there are beginning to be more buyers and sellers in our regional markets, particularly Howard County, Carroll County, and Montgomery County, and a few others.
With the number of job openings increasing in Maryland particularly through the I-95 corridor the short term outlook is positive and showing signs of even more improvement. Interest rates are looking to edge higher, but not by much and are seen to stay very favorable for home buying and commercial buying for the next year.
Keep your head up and working hard Maryland! Financial times seem to be changing for the better!
For more information on your local housing outlook or to get a value analysis of your home, please give us a call or email at 443.602.9900 res@reshilow.com.
By:
Ryan E. Shilow
A Johns Hopkins Mater of Real Estate
Maryland Real Estate Broker of Record