Our Baltimore market is slightly ahead of the seasonal schedule.

What’s the latest news from our Baltimore real estate market? In short, it’s super busy and the prices are pushing upward, which is great for sellers and a bit frustrating for buyers. 

In Baltimore and Harford counties, homes have appreciated just under 12% since January and February of last year. In Baltimore County, unit sales have increased about 10.5% in that time, while Harford County sales have increased about 5%. Demand is high, and the way homeowners are using their homes has obviously changed since the beginning of last year, with so many people working from home or their children having to school from home.

“For anyone who needs to sell first in order to buy a new home, get your current home ready to sell now.”

We’re also seeing a lot more listing appointments from people prepping for the spring market, so we’re slightly ahead of the normal seasonal schedule. In certain neighborhoods, where there were previously no homes on the market, we’re now seeing three or four pop up. The spring market is coming, and so is inventory (although not a ton).

One particularly important question I got asked recently is, “What are we going to see with all the foreclosures?” These foreclosures probably won’t happen until the third or fourth quarter of 2021, so you don’t have to worry about a dropoff in pricing. We will see the number of offers that are significantly over list price decrease a bit, though; more and more buyers will only pay for what they really need going into the second half of 2021. 

If you want to move and are hoping to take advantage of this appreciation, know that you’ll have to pay a higher price for your next home. Also, for anyone who needs to sell first in order to buy a new home, get your current home ready to sell now. The majority of sellers aren’t accepting contingent offers because they’ll likely have other non-contingent offers to choose from. Moving forward, we’ll probably see appreciation rates dip into the 3% to 5% range, but people will still pay more for homes due to supply and demand pushing prices upward. 

If you have questions about our Baltimore market or are thinking of buying or selling a home soon, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to hear from you.