By Billy Rabbitt, SoldbyRabbitt.com
The housing market in Southern Maryland continues to stay strong throughout the holidays of 2019 and into 2020. It is no surprise since we are still seeing low-interest rates, competitive programs for homebuyers from mortgage lenders and the value a Southern Maryland home brings versus surrounding counties.
BRIGHT MLS, the listing service that real estate agents utilize, published that the average list price of a home in Southern Maryland (St. Mary’s, Charles and Calvert) increased from $335,343 to $386,864 in comparison of January 2019 versus 2020. That increase is driving sellers to list their homes and has boosted the inventory in January 2020 (1,402 homes) versus a low inventory in 2019 (500). We have already seen almost 400 more listings in Southern Maryland in January versus December.
It appears that the “Spring Selling Season” may come a little early in Southern Maryland this year.
For November and December, Charles County remained HOT as homes only lasted an average of 40 Days on the market before their sellers brandished a SOLD sign in the yard. Calvert came in at 48 days and St. Mary’s right behind at 50 days. We also saw 468 homes sold in Charles, 258 for Calvert and 304 homes in St. Mary’s leave the market for the same time period.
Calvert led the mark at a median sold price of $342,500 per home. Charles County came in at $317,400 per home and St. Mary’s below the $300k mark at $289,950 per home sold in November/December. Buyers were able to put 761 homes into the “Pending” or Under Contract status in December which will likely lead to another strong month for housing in Southern Maryland for January.
Currently, we have roughly 1402 homes in inventory throughout the Tri-County market. The inventory is much higher versus January 2019, but only provides an inventory accumulation of 2.5 months. In other words, we could sell out the current Southern Maryland inventory in less than 3 months! The average list price of homes has risen nearly $36,604 per house versus January 2019 as well.
With appealing interest rates and mortgage programs, low inventory and the rising cost of homes, we are in for an exciting housing market in 2020. Grab your popcorn and enjoy the show, 2020 is off and running!
