Thursday, July 17, 2014

An analysis of the June 2014 Silver Spring, Maryland Real Estate Market

Call:  (301)943-4370

 
How is the Silver Spring Market?  Let's first look a general look at the Montgomery County, MD Housing Report for Single Family Homes, courtesy of GCAAR.


 Yes, neighborhoods vary, but this trend is important to look at as well to get a feel for the local market of single family homes. Listings were up by 14.4% in June compared to June 2013 and listings are up year to date 44.1% from last year. Everyone is hearing it is a good time to sell, good interest rates. The percent of contracts was down compared to last June and comparing last year to this year, year to date. It looks like more homes were put on the market in June than went under contract, so there is a net of more inventory. Settlements were also down compared to last June and overall last year.

To me the listings and contracts sections are most relevant. If we look to the right of the page, 'Sales Trend', "contracts ratified per month", you can see the market was very hot last June, with about 1000 homes going under contract. The numbers dropped for a few months, increased in October and then dipped until January when the market got hot again....even with the bad weather coming contracts trended up in February, March and April before going down in May and June. My theory on the winter is that some sellers held back their homes until the weather was better and buyers so a lack of inventory. Going down to the pie chart, 12.2% of the contracts were in the $500k-$599999 range and 9.1% were in the $600k to $699999 range. 8.2% were in the $700k range to the $799999 range. Right below that is the average and median price of homes that have been going under contract. Average is literally taking the sales prices and dividing them out. Median ties to accounts for homes that were either a lot higher or lower than the other homes and impacted the average.   

The next 4 pages are from a June 2014 market report from Long & Foster, looking at the 20901,20902,20903,20904,20905,20906,20910 zipcodes...Silver Spring. More focussed on our market. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Looking at page 1 above, compared to last year, units sold up, active inventory the same about, median sales iceup, days on marked up. The number of homes on the market in June was l5% less than the number of the homes on the market last June, so inventory is working in a seller's favor. 
 
The next page (below/ page 2)  gives a breakdown of condos/coops, attached and detached homes on the market.    The median sales price in June 2014 was up, $369k compared to $350,500 in 2013.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Page 3 (below) shows that compared to last year the Silver Spring market has more listings and more contracts than a year ago and the ratio of asking price to sold price stayed the same at 98.7%.
 
 
 
 
 
The box on the right corner estimates that if no other homes were listed, it would take 2.2 months for all Silver Spring homes on the market to sell, which is down by 3% compared to last June. 
 
 
 
 
 
Page 4 (above), the last page of the report (above) says that in June it took on average 34 days for a home to get under contract compared to 31 days last year. 
 
Generally speaking it is considered to be a "seller's market" when houses sell in 4/5 months or less and a "buyer's market when homes are the market beyond 4/5 months.  However, based on the above statistices, Between 1 and 2 months on the market is a relatively long time for a home to be active in the Silver Spring, MD. market.   Of course, there are variables which impact the days a home may be on the market, such as number of buyers looking in different price ranges.  That being said, the home probably needs to be repositioned in price and/or property condition if it hasn't gotten under contract within a month or so.  In fact, it is my suggestion that one's first price adjustment should be if a home has been on the market for 2 weeks and/or 15 bonified buyers (not neighbors who are just curious) have gone through the home and haven't made an offer, that the price be adjusted and adjust the price/property condition again if in a couple weeks it is still on the market.
 
You don't often get a second chance to make a first impression.  The most activity on a home tends to be the first 2 weeks on the market.  So it is important for a home to show well and be priced well up front.
 
Whenever you or someone you know is thinking about selling your home, I would be happy to come over to look it over, give suggestions on any work/staging you could do to make the home more appealing to buyers and also suggest a price range for listing your home.  I appreciate and always hae time for your referrals.
Thanks!
 
 
Life is good!
 
Adam Bashein
Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc.
Licensed in MD & DC
Cell:  (301)943-4370
Office:  (301)469-4700 - ask for Adam
www,basheinhomes.info
information deemed to be accurate but not guaranteed
 






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