March Housing Stats
HUGHESVILLE, Md. –– As the spring market approaches, several trends emerged over the past month, signaling a decrease in activity across Southern Maryland’s housing market.
Looking at the most recently available year-over-year data from the Southern Maryland Association of Realtors®(SMAR), inventory has been steadily rising, fewer units are selling, and those that are selling take longer to sell and are going for less.
“It’s taking longer for sellers to find buyers, but it’s still historically shorter than it has been to find ready, willing, and able buyers,” SMAR 2022-23 President Michael Funk commented. “Homes priced below $350,000 and other popular first-time home buyer options are still moving quickly.”
Across Southern Maryland, average sold home prices dropped by 1.26%, however, most of that can be attributed to declines in Charles County weighing down the region’s average. Calvert and St. Mary’s County saw marginal increases in their average and median sold prices.
While active inventory is up 80.37% from this time last year, fewer homes are selling. The total number of units sold over the past month totals 315, a 30.16% drop from this time in 2022.
Additionally, homes that are selling are taking almost 20 more days to sell than they were last year, which is an average of 44 days on the market. Overall, buyers are taking their time to find the right house and are getting more concessions from sellers than they have over the past year.
The average sold price to original list price ratio was approximately 97.2% last month, down from 100.1% in 2022. This means homes are selling for less than they are originally listed for, as opposed to last year when many buyers were paying above list price to get a home.
New listings were down from this time last year by roughly 38.74%, indicating a slow start to the approaching spring market as many sellers contemplate staying where they are.
“We have started to see a shortage of sellers because people don’t want to sell. That could be due to any number of reasons, with some common examples being economic uncertainty or people don’t want to lose the low-interest rates that they locked in over the past couple of years,” Funk said.
Housing market statistics from each county in the Southern Maryland region can be found below:
Calvert County
- Units Sold: 81 (-18.18%)
- Total Sales Volume: $ 38,555,126 (-12.17%)
- Average Days On The Market: 48 (+24 Days from February 2022)
- Median Sold Price: $400,000 (+0.50%)
Charles County
- Units Sold: 141 (-40.00%)
- Total Sales Volume: $ 58,725,401 (-42.29 %)
- Average Days On The Market: 42 (+22 Days from February 2022)
- Median Sold Price: $400,000 (-6.98%)
St. Mary’s County
- Units Sold: 93 (-20.51%)
- Total Sales Volume: $ 36,354,631 (-20.39%)
- Average Days On The Market: 42 (+8 Days from February 2022)
- Median Sold Price: $375,000 (+4.17%)
Visit https://www.southernmarylandrealtors.org/pages/housing-statistics/ every month for additional details about the housing market in Southern Maryland. A video breakdown of the local statistics for the month can be found on the SMAR YouTube page at:
Statistics for this article were compiled with cooperation from Bright MLS, a leading housing market data source and a real estate listing service for Realtors® throughout the region.
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More about the Southern Maryland Association of Realtors®:
The Southern Maryland Association of Realtors® represents the largest trade organization in the southern Maryland region, advocating on behalf of over 1,800 members and affiliates. SMAR advocates for property rights and provides insights regarding the local real estate market.
