Here's a bit of good news for folks with a home on the market: Pending sales in Maryland last month were up more than 7 percent from a year earlier, to about 5,600, according to the Maryland Association of Realtors. (The number of homes on the market decreased by about the same percentage, taking the inventory of unsold properties below 45,000.)
Contracts and contingent deals rose most in the Washington suburbs -- up a whopping 56 percent in Prince George's County, 53 percent in Frederick and 32 percent in Montgomery. No idea how much the buyers are intending to pay for those homes, but average prices for deals that closed last month fell nearly 20 percent in all three counties.
In the Baltimore area, pending sales rose in Carroll (13 percent) and Howard (3.5 percent). Pending deals were essentially flat in Anne Arundel. They fell 4.7 percent in Harford, 6.7 percent in Baltimore County and almost 11 percent in Baltimore City.
Do the differences come down to price? Hard to say, without knowing what those pending deals are going for.
In the Baltimore metro area as a whole, at least, asking prices do seem to be down significantly. According to HousingTracker, they've decreased 10 percent from a year ago and 18 percent from two years ago for the median house. That two-year difference is a $60,000 cut.