Here is a quickie overview of what is happening in one little part of Silver Spring.  The zip code - 20901 - takes in a large area including such hot spots as:

• Four Corners (a great, older community with lots of trees and close to the commuter routes)
• White Oak Shopping Center
• the new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) office facilities
• Westfield Wheaton Shopping
• the Wheaton METRO station
• Sligo Creek Park (great for biking and walking)

So….What’s going on in the real estate market?

It’s still not a pretty picture. However there seems to be signs of improvement:

• Median Sales Price is moving up slightly.
• Days on Market seems to have stabilized a bit. It’s still a long time but, at least, it’s not getting any longer.
• Inventory is getting bigger — this is the number of homes currently on the market. This means more people are feeling good about selling their homes.

Laurel, MD is a vibrant community that actaully spans across three Counties — Prince George’s County, Howard County and Anne Arundel County. Laurel is highly accessible by at least three major commuter routes including the Baltimore/Washington Parkway which cuts through the Anne Arundel County section of Laurel, Route 1 (Baltimore Avenue) which runs thorugh the Prince George’s County part of Laurel and RT 95 which will bypasses the Howard County end. There is also the local MARC train station that will take commuters into Washington, DC or Baltimore, MD.

Laurel is situated in an ideal location close to many major employers as well as the easy access to three large metropolitan areas - Baltimore, MD, Washington, DC and Annapolis, MD. Laurel also boasts these great attractions:

• The Montpelier Center for Arts and Education
• Laurel Park Racetrack
• Historic Laurel Main Street
• Great shopping in a converted foundry — Savage Mill

Here is a snapshot of the current real estate market in Laurel, MD (the 20707 zip code).

If you want a more detailed report just visit the Market Trends link (above) and sign up.  The report will be e-mailed to you immediately! (or you can fill out the form on the right that says “Real Time Market Data”)

Good news for people who want the answer to the question: “What’s the Real Estate Market doing?”

I recently hooked up with Altos Research to provide real time real estate market data for ten zipcodes in the Maryland Suburbs of DC.  So if you’ve been wondering what’s going on…

• Beltsville, MD - 20705
• Bethesda, MD - 20817
• Bowie, MD - 20715
• Bowie, MD - 20720
• Burtonsville, MD - 20866
• College Park, MD - 20740
• Greenbelt, MD - 20770
• Laurel, MD - 20707
• Silver Spring, MD - 20901
• Silver Spring, MD - 20904

All you have to do is click on the link and go from there!

Beltsville, MD is the home to a diverse community that includes a sizable commercial sector, single family homes, condos and townhouses.  Beltsville is also home to the US Department of Agriculture Research Center (ARS) with thousands of acres of research farms for both crops and livestock.  Beltsville is also one of the few towns in the area to boast its own home town newspaper, The Beltsville News.

Beltsville is located just a few miles from the University of MD and the College Park and Greenbelt METRO stations.

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Here is a snapshot of what is happening in the real estate market in Beltsville, MD.  If you would like a more detailed report just sign up on the form to your right and click on Beltsville - 20705 in the drop down menu.  The report will be e-mailed to you for FREE!

If you’re interested in learning more about Beltsville and the surrounding area in the MD Suburbs of DC, give me a ring at 240-417-9100 or send me an e-mail.

Below are three charts that give a brief snapshot of the market trends in College Park, MD:

• the median price (an equal number of home priced above this range and an equal number priced below the range)
• days on market (how long houses stay on the market until they’re sold)
• inventory (how many homes are on the market)

It’s not pretty. Sometimes the truth is not pretty.  It’s important to know, though.

If you’re interested in a more detailed report that has a lot more data than these three charts there is a form over to the right that says Real-Time Market Data.  Just fill it in and select the zip code for the area you want the report for — College Park is 20740 (but you knew that!).

You will be e-mailed a full report.  It’s free…free…free.

I was just giving the housing stats for the College Park and Berwyn Heights area (20740) a look and thought I’d share.

I look at what’s on the market now — including single family homes, townhouses and condos — what is pending settlement and the houses that have actually sold and settled within the most recent 90 days. This gives me both a great snapshot of what’s going on in the market and helps me arrive at the absorption rate.  The absorption rate is the amount of time it will take a house to sell assuming no new homes come on the market. Of course, new homes do, in fact come on the market all the time.  Houses sell to offset the new homes coming on the market. However, the homes selling are not selling fast enough to make a big difference.

Currently, there appears to be a little over 19 months supply of housing in the 20740 Zip Code.  About 8 homes sold, on average, over the most recent 90 days.

So what will it take to for your home to be one of those 8 properties that sell.

1. An aggressive price
2. Pristine condition

Obviously, if the home is in a short sale or foreclosure situation, there is not much to be done.  If you have equity in your home, there are things you can do.

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When I wrote a post a couple of days back about the uptick in existing home sales, one commenter suggested that most of the sales were the result of investors buying up foreclosures and short sales.  I posted something very similar on another, industry specific blog, and got pretty much the same reaction from a couple of readers.  The implication is that since a lot of the home sales were for foreclosed homes or short sales than they somehow don’t count or, maybe, they shouldn’t be weighted as heavily in the statistical data.

I say: Poppycock! (since this is a “G-rated” blog). All home sales regardless of the type of home involved is a home sale.  When residential real estate transfers from one owner to another for financial consideration (i.e., money) it is a home sale.  It doesn’t matter what type of residential real estate:

• condominium
• town house
• semi-detached (duplexes)
• single family home
• even multi-family up to four units

It’s all considered residential real estate regardless whether or not it is in foreclosure or in short sale status.  It doesn’t matter if the home is in pristine condition or is a real fixer-upper or just a shell that’s been gutted of all the appliances, cabinets, light fixtures and anything else a previous owner could strip from the house.

It doesn’t matter is the Seller is a person, like you and me, with equity in their home or if the Seller is a bank, and Estate of a deceased owner, or any other entity.

A sale is a sale.

Why Investor Sales Are A Good Thing

It is said that real estate investors are the ones starting to buy up these short sales and foreclosed homes.

Good!

In fact, I wish more real estate investors would get into the game and buy as many as they could.  Here’s why:

• Real Estate Investors aren’t emotionally involved in the property. They run the numbers and if the numbers work, they invest.  If they don’t, they take a pass. If real estate investors are starting to buy real estate that must mean the numbers are working.
• Real Estate Investors have the money. These folks either have cold, hard cash or can get it.  That means there isn’t any question about whether the real estate will pass from seller to buyer…and it’s usually pretty quick.
• Real Estate Investors help reduce the inventory of available homes. This is a good thing. The fewer homes on the market whether they’re short sales, foreclosed homes or “plain vanilla” the quicker the real estate market will reach equilibrium and stabilize.
• Real Estate Investors are a leading indicator of market activity. This means that once real estate investors start re-entering the market there is opportunity. When the numbers work, they work.  It usually means that “just regular folks” - people who want to buy a house to live in - will be shortly behind.

So, it doesn’t matter to me or to the people keeping track of the statistics about home sales. Investment property, primary residence…either way.

Now all we need is a few more months of increased sales and we’ll have a bonafide trend.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

About once a month I run stats for the the 20740 zip code that includes College Park and Berwyn Heights.  Both these towns share the same zip and homes in these towns are close to the University of MD, METRO for a quick commute to downtown DC, great commuter routes like the Washington Beltway, RT 95 (north/south to Baltimore or points in Virginia), RT 50 which heads either into DC or out toward Annapolis and eventually the Atlantic Ocean, lots of parks, great shopping and decent schools.

So here’s the housing run down:

Current # of Homes Available for Sale =155 (all types)
Pending Listings (under contract) = 19
Sold within the most recent 90 days = 40
Average # of Homes sold/month = 13.33 homes/month
# of months housing supply = 11.63 months of inventory

Let’s Break It Down

There are 155 total homes currently available for sale (this includes condos, townhouses and single family homes). Yet, in the most recent 90 day period, only 40 homes sold.  So, if no other home came on the market, it would take almost a year to sell what is currently available for sale.

This is known as the absorption rate — how long it would take the current number of homes to be “absorbed” by the market. It’s an actual mathematical formula which can be used for any geographic area. It’s pretty simple: the number of homes currently on the market divided by the average number of homes sold with in a certain time period.

In the case of 20740 (College Park and Berwyn Heights) it looks like this:

40 (homes sold within 90 days) ÷ 3 (months) = 13.3 (avg. # of homes sold)

155 (# of homes for sale) ÷ 13.3 (avg. # of homes sold) = 11.63 (months supply)

Thirteen homes (give or take a third of a house) sell, on average, in any given month.  This means that of the 155 homes for sale your home has a tad better than 8% chance of selling (8.4% to be more exact). Put another way it means there is a 92% chance it won’t sell.

What The Heck Does This Mean?

It really just means one thing.  If you want your house to sell…if you want your house to be one of those lucky 13.33 houses that move from Seller to Buyer…if you are really tired of having people walk through your house (or not walk through), you need to address two things:

1. Price
2. Condition

Caveat: Even though these numbers take into consideration all homes, including foreclosures and short sales, I understand that with foreclosures and short sales both price and condition are beyond the control of the Seller.