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.