Maryland Housing Statistics October - Nov 2010

Maryland Housing Statistics were released this week revealing a downward trend in both settled and pending homes and an increase in active listings. Currently there are about 1,400 less pending contracts in the state of Maryland as there were in September of 2009. There are about 500 more compared to September of 2008 however. The active listing inventory crept up to 46,457 homes compared to 44,204 in 09 and 51,021 in 2008.




Many experts are expecting this inventory level to significantly decrease as active foreclosure listings are pulled off the market for review during the current robo signer debacle within the mortgage banking industry. Just yesterday 109 listings were pulled from MLS that were foreclosures actively for sale the day before. Of course these homes are not going to disappear forever. Inevitably they will hit the market again, most likely in a few months when the reviews of processes and files are complete by the auditors. Since typically from November 15th to January 15th is an unwritten moratorium period for the foreclosure industry (it’s simply ugly and creates bad press to evict someone around the holidays) this time frame will start early in light of what’s happening and a huge wave of foreclosures will hit the market next spring.

It is already expected that 2011 will see a minimum of double the amount of foreclosures put up for sale so now it is my prediction that an inventory wave of tsunami type proportions will come down on our market this spring and shoot the falling inventory levels to record highs. What does this mean to the consumer? If your a seller ...sell now! There will be less competition in the coming months. If your a buyer….wait till spring cause a buyer’s market awaits.