Every Market is an Opportunity for Someone

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Your local Real Estate market is always a fluid one, one season a buyers' market, the next a sellers' market, etc.  The Real Estate market in Frederick MD has definitely been a declining market. Several factors contributed to this:

Last year's statistics for Frederick County showed that the amount of homes listed was 2434, while the number of sales was 163 in the month of September. That means that there were 15 sellers for every buyer. While listings were up 5-fold from a few years ago, sales have reduced by half. The increase in inventory alone, forces prices down.

The rising number of foreclosures is forcing prices down.
The tightening of loan qualifications is slowing down sales.

Mostly, the housing costs in this area just couldn’t keep rising at the rate they were. Eventually, affordability was lost, and the market had to correct itself so affordability could catch up.

So you might be wondering…why would you say this is a good market? A declining market is a good market for people who want to move up, and who have some equity, and who have kept good credit scores. Here is an example:

2 or 3 years ago, you might have had a house worth $400,000 and wanted to move up to a $500,000 house. The difference was $100,000. This year, when the market has declined about 10%, your house would now be worth $360,000, and the house you want to move up to is now worth $450,000. Now it’s only a difference of $90,000. As long as you have enough equity in your current home to put a down payment on the new home, you are actually saving.

A declining market is typically a good move-up market, as long as you don't wait too long, and that would be when values decline to the pont that you don't have enough equity to use as a downpayment on your next purchase.

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The Highland Group 

Search the MLS like a Realtor

Chris & Karen Highland * 301-831-9947

Turning Point Real Estate

email us: isell4u2@msn.com

Text Us: 301-401-5119

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