It's a case of survival in Maryland these days as fall out from the credit crunch hits. A temporary sales spike of homes aided Maryland housing markets in their recovery, but the second round of foreclosures resulting from more than 3-million adjustable rate mortgages resetting in 2009 will send the housing markets into a growing deflationary cycle.
Homes that are selling in Baltimore are taking longer to market as prices decline. More than a year after the downturn in its market, Baltimore is witnessing eroding market conditions and a higher inventory of homes. The area is ripe for increasing deflation in housing prices as it struggles with the credit crunch.
The prices of homes have fallen for more than a year in Baltimore amid growing sluggishness due to a lack of consumer confidence. Baltimore homes are forecast to deflate an average of 11.9% in 2009. Year over year foreclosure sales increased helping to aid the markets volume.
As a bedroom community of Washington D.C., Prince Georges County has experienced a major slowdown. Sales volume is off by more than a third and home prices are falling in the recessionary economy. The county that is home to the NFL's Washington Redskins is troubled by a worsening economic environment that is projected to last through 2009. A lack of sales volume and an over supply of inventory, which would take more than two years to sell off at present levels are forecast to send home values a forecasted 10.8% lower through the year.
 |
| City |
Forecast |
| Baltimore |
− 11.9% |
| Prince George's County |
− 10.8% |
| Bethesda |
− 13.6% |
| Silver Spring |
− 12.8% |
| Columbia |
− 10.7% |
In Bethesda, a research hub for the federal government, the average price of a home still tops $1-million. No other price range in housing will suffer more through the nation's financial crisis like the high-end with plummeting values. The time it's taking to sell a home in Bethesda is increasing as prices decline and is forecast to lose 13.6% in value in 2009. Short sales and foreclosures are expected to increase markedly through the year.
Home sales in Silver Spring are nearly off by half from the boom days when Silver Spring, which is a tourist's paradise, was bustling. The recession is being felt in more ways in this town than many others in Maryland, which is just coming to grips with the fall out of a housing market that thrived on funny money like Monopoly dollars developed on Wall Street.
A growing inventory of foreclosures and short sales are supporting the majority of what there is of the real estate economy, where the bargains are being had. Silver Spring is forecast to deflate an average of 12.8% in average housing values in 2009.
The second most populated city in Maryland, Columbia is home to many who make their livings working in the nation's capitol. Columbia's housing market has fallen on hard times in the national financial crisis as home sales slow and prices decline. The community has grown fairly steadily since the 1960's, but with the credit crisis builders cancelled plans to build more developments, fearing a downturn.
As it turns out they were right. Foreclosures are rising in hard hit Columbia, and home values are projected to decline an additional forecast 10.7% in 2009.
