Baltimore Prices, New Home Builders
So the Baltimore housing market is starting its decline. According to Housing Tracker , Baltimore ’s median price is down -10.5% year over year. And according to the newly release S&P Case-Shiller figures for Washington D.C. (although not Baltimore , we have a symbiotic relationship with that MSA ) DC is down -7.2% year over year. In reality Baltimore appreciated with about a 6 month lag behind DC so I have and continue to anticipate a 6 month lag for Baltimore . House prices are falling and if you don’t believe me, get an account at www.ziprealty.com and do a search for “short sales” and “reduced prices”. And if you’re really interested you may want to check out the REO homes (real estate owned) as in owned by a bank or lender
Do some searches for Maryland REO’s on
Countrywide
Bank of America
CITI
HSCB
IndyMac
I found one here today that looks very interesting. It’s a REO owned by Countrywide.
Current Listing Price: $489,900
Original Price: $549,900
2005 Prior Sale Price: $497,900
This house is back to 2005 prices already
Price Reduced: 05/24/07 -- $549,900 to $537,900
Price Reduced: 06/12/07 -- $537,900 to $529,900
Price Reduced: 07/18/07 -- $529,900 to $521,900
Price Reduced: 07/24/07 -- $521,900 to $513,900
Price Reduced: 08/22/07 -- $513,900 to $505,900
Price Reduced: 10/10/07 -- $497,900 to $489,900
Days on Market: 175
On ziprealty.com this house has this note attached to it
“This property will be offered october 15, 2007 - october 29, 2007 through an online bidding event.”
I’ll see if Maryland Land record get anything on this and then I’ll let you know.
Something new you might want the checkout:
Check out Jamie Smith Hopkins new Real Estate Wonk Blog via the Baltimore Sun. Though this isn’t a “Bubble” blog, she does post a lot and is a reader of a lot of my favorite bubble blogs.
So last weekend my wife and I went to a few new home open houses and here are my opinions.
Bozzuto Homes has a few homes right on North Charles Street called Woodbrook . They were priced at $800Kish and they were no more than duet homes which is new lingo for duplex. They are definitely not worth the price…I wouldn’t even give $300K for one.
Then we checked out K Hovnanian’s Holly Ridge homes in Timonium. No model home to look at, but your back yard is literally the Route 83 Harrisburg Expressway sound barrier wall. Lets just say I could definitely hear and SMELL the traffic on this sunny Sunday afternoon. Hope you don’t have asthma because for $600K you can have the best view in the world, a beige concrete wall with noise and smog surrounding your home.
Then we went over to White Marsh and checked out the crazy Honeygo section. We went over to Ryan and NV homes The Enclave and these had to be the worst built homes I have ever seen in my life. I couldn’t believe anybody would let the model home have such a bad paint job with paint dripping and crown molding that didn’t joint correctly. And why would anybody want a basement bar that is literally 1/2 of the entire basement and yet didn’t even have a sink or washing machine…. Buyers seriously beware of shoddy construction work. Years ago I was a project manager for a home builder and I know what cheap wet back labor looks like.
Then, we drove though all the neighborhoods and we saw hundreds of for sale signs on the new 2005 homes right in the honeygo area. Those sellers are screwed because the builder is selling newer units for less.
Finally we came into another development in the Honeygo area. Chateau Builders has the Chateau Estates at Moore’s Meadows. These homes were in the same price range as the Ryan homes, but drastically superior in quality, features, design, etc… But still at around $600K, I think the builder of these unbuilt homes needs to lower that to around $450K loaded. I’d buy one now if it was price at $450K.
Have you been out and about looking at homes recently? Post what you’ve seen and lets light up Baltimore .
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