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Nation’s Capital Experiencing Record Housing Growth

shutterstock_549835912Housing market updates released Friday by Bright MLS [1] report that the Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C. areas reached record highs in median sales prices at $260,000 for Baltimore and $413,125 for Washington, D.C.

Both areas’ October 2017 price levels were the highest price levels for October in the last decade. In the case of Washington, D.C., the median sales price marked the 13th consecutive month of year-over-year price increases, according to Bright MLS.

In the home prices arena, prices also rose compared to last year, with Baltimore townhomes and condominiums up 5.6 percent to $190,000 and 2.1 percent to $219,500. The respective growth numbers for the D.C. area were up 3.8 percent to $410,000 for townhomes and up 3 percent to $307,000 for condos. Single-family detached home prices were also up 3.1 percent to $324,000 in Baltimore and 3.7 percent to $508,180 in D.C. Additionally, both Baltimore and D.C. numbers are over their five and ten-year averages, according to Bright MLS.

Closed sales for both areas were also up, with 3,097 in Baltimore and 4,320 in D.C. at rates of +1.2 percent and +8.8 percent, respectively. As with the home prices, both these numbers are well above the five and ten-year averages for the respective regions.

New pending sales for both areas showed growth, with 3,677 up 7.3 percent for Baltimore and 4,969 up 2.2 percent for D.C. Bright MLS states that pending sales activity numbers for the regions of both areas were mostly up, as well.

The Baltimore housing market had 4,677 new listings in October while D.C. had 5,770. Those numbers are up 8.1 percent from last year but down 2.1 percent from last month and up 6.9 percent from last year and down 17.2 percent from last month, respectively. Baltimore did not list any decreases in listings, but Falls Church City of the D.C. region saw a percentage decrease in new listings.

However, Bright MLS also reports that both month’s end inventories and days-on-market (DOM) were down for both markets. Baltimore had a growth of -11.3 percent for an active inventory of 10,612 while D.C. was down 2.8 percent for 10,105 active listings. The DOM for Baltimore also dropped by 8 to 32 days compared to last year while D.C. dropped 6 to reach a median of 17 days from last year.

Finally, in average sales price to original list price ratio (SP to OLP), Baltimore was at 95.4 percent and D.C. was at 98 percent. According to the report, the Baltimore number was the highest October level in a decade for the market.