HUGHESVILLE, Md. – As the housing market in Southern Maryland continues to post positive metrics, several key statistics are still raising some red flags.
According to the most recent data from the Southern Maryland Association of REALTORS®, the region continues to face inventory problems while prices are growing.
Year-over-year, the median, and average sold prices rose last month, 8.97% and 5.17%, respectively. The median sold price for a home in Southern Maryland last month was $425,000.
Additionally, the number of units sold last month saw a large year-over-year increase, up nearly 15%. This also led to a sold dollar volume increase of almost 20%, to roughly $160 million worth of transactions.
However, while new listings grew roughly 10% last month, active inventory was still down roughly 9% from 2023. Also, pending transactions are currently down from this time last year by about 9%.
“The market is seeing some interesting things happen right now,” SMAR 2023-2024 President Tracy Vasquez said. “On one hand, you have rates holding where they are which is keeping many buyers out of the market. On the other hand, you are seeing sellers growing their home equity and driving many transactions. Our housing shortage is just continuing to create troubling market conditions.”
A bigger concern for the market currently is that as inventory remains historically low, sellers are continuing to gain ground across Southern Maryland. The market has not corrected to a “healthy market” in terms of active inventory, which forces the market to favor sellers.
Additionally, this leverage sellers have is evident through the average sold price to original list price ratio, which jumped nearly 2% from this time last year. That ratio is now 98.9%, meaning that sellers are even getting closer to receiving the full original list price on average when they sell.
Also, homes are continuing to sell at a faster pace. Last month, the average days on the market dropped for our region by approximately 12 days year-over-year, to an average of 32 days.
“Maryland, much like the rest of our country, is facing a housing inventory crisis,” Vasquez said. “Many people just can’t move because they don’t have somewhere else that they can go live. However, we are optimistic that new inventory will continue to rebound throughout the year, and we will see a more balanced market down the road.”
Housing market statistics from each county in the Southern Maryland region can be found below:
Calvert County
Units Sold: 79 (-2.47%)
Total Sales Volume: $ 38.7 Million (+0.30%)
Average Days On The Market: 32 (-16 Days from February 2023)
Median Sold Price: $468,000 (+17.00%)
Charles County
Units Sold: 170 (+20.57%)
Total Sales Volume: $ 77 Million (+31.19 %)
Average Days On The Market: 36 (-6 Days from February 2023)
Median Sold Price: $449,945 (+12.49%)
St. Mary’s County
Units Sold: 111 (+19.35%)
Total Sales Volume: $ 44.6 Million (+22.59%)
Average Days On The Market: 27 (-15 Days from February 2023)
Median Sold Price: $386,000 (+2.93%)
Visit https://www.southernmarylandrealtors.org/pages/housing-statistics/ every month for additional details about the housing market in Southern Maryland. A video breakdown of the local statistics for the month can be found on the SMAR YouTube page at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjUCfnKYCvs
Statistics for this article were compiled with cooperation from Bright MLS, a leading housing market data source and a real estate listing service for Realtors® throughout the region.
The median sold price for a home in Southern Maryland last month was $425,000.
There’s your number one problem
CNN released a article this morning about states that are basically not affordable to live in, Maryland was on that list, it states that you need a income of $108,257 to live comfortably here if you attempt to purchase a home here in todays world, however southern Maryland has a median household income of $90,000 based on three working individuals working in the household, no wonder it’s almost top of the list for states moved out of