The local real estate market weathered another brutal month in November, as Realtors continued to look for a ray of light that would bring uncertain buyers off the sidelines.
Sale prices of homes in the Baltimore area fell for the 13th straight month and the number of homes sold fell more than 30 percent from last year’s already depressed level, according to data released Wednesday.
The median sale price — the point at which half of homes sold for more and half for less –Êin November in Baltimore City and its five surrounding counties fell 4.33 percent to $248,129, according to data compiled by Realtor-owned Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc.
As the economy slid further into recession, the number of units sold last month fell nearly 33 percent to 1,270. That number is down more that 53 percent from November 2006, near the height of the real estate bubble.
“That’s why we’re looking at [federal] stimulus packages to get buyers back into the market,” said Jody Landers, executive vice president of the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors. “There are a lot of things in the works, with these numbers, its evident we need some kind of stimulus.”
Last month’s numbers were just another step in the march toward a bottom of the real estate market, said Stephen Walters, a professor of economics at Loyola College.
“Prices were unsustainably high and we’ve got to get that out of our system,” said Walters.
But last month brought some of the steepest year-over-year declines seen since the housing and foreclosure crisis began in the summer of 2007. Median sale prices in Baltimore City and County both fell by nearly 10 percent, while the number of units sold in Howard County plummeted 42 percent.
“Things are just sitting there, people are just frozen,” said Ilene Kessler, a Realtor with RE/MAX Advantage in Columbia. “What we’re seeing is that it pretty much transcends all price ranges.”
Kessler and other Realtors are quick to point out the deals currently available and the low interest rates, which may be further lowered by the incoming Obama administration. But they said buyers have been hesitant to enter the market, still looking for the same market bottom they sought last year.
While an actual market recovery may take many months, even a small sign of strength might be enough to change buyers’ perceptions, said Marc Witman, a partner at Baltimore-based real estate broker Yerman, Witman, Gaines & Conklin Realty.
“As soon as you get some economic stability, the buyers will come back in,” said Witman. “When you have economic instability, people’s confidence is shaken. It’s really a state of mind. It’s not really the actuality, it’s about how people feel about things.”
