Frederick County, MD Property Values (washingtonpost.com)
The median home sales price in the county declined to $325,000 from $331,500 in 2006, according to a Washington Post analysis of state records of single-family and townhouse sales. Condominiums were not included.
The figures didn't surprise real estate appraiser Wayne Six.
"We knew this was going to happen," said Six, owner of Six & Associates, a residential appraisal firm in Frederick. The slump, he said, is a correction to the double-digit-percentage run-up in house prices from June 2001 to June 2005.
Doris White, supervisor of assessments for Frederick County, said she hasn't noticed a significant decline in housing prices but has seen a big increase in the number of foreclosures.
"In every pile of deeds, I'm probably going to have five or six that are foreclosures," she said, noting that she has never experienced this in 25 years of assessment work.
"People bought more than they should have when the market was at its peak," said Mary Richeimer, owner of Buyer's Best Realtors, an Urbana agency that represents only buyers. Now, she said, the foreclosures are adding to the glut of homes on the market.
The number of house sales decreased by about 40 percent, to 2,452 units from 4,024 in 2006. According to Six, in 2005, at the peak of the boom, there were 375 homes for sale; now there are 1,970.
Almost half the county's sales last year were in Frederick's Zip code 21701, where the median price declined 4 percent, to $300,000. In Zip code 21702, also in the city of Frederick, prices fell 6.5 percent to $345,000 from $369,000.
On the other hand, in the smaller Frederick Zip code 21703, the median sales price surged 18 percent, to $435,710 from $370,000.
Parts of the county stayed more or less constant. Zip code 21716, home to Brunswick near the West Virginia border, and Zip code 21727, home to Emmitsburg near the Pennsylvania border, both experienced double-digit-percentage increases in 2006 but only 1 percent rises last year.
The strongest market now is in lower-priced houses, Six said, such as townhouses from $199,000 to $235,000. Homes on 50 acres or more have also sold well, he said, because supply is limited.
Some of Richeimer's clients prefer houses in poorer condition that sell for 25 to 30 percent less than comparable homes in good condition, she said, because they can make some repairs and show what she called "some instant equity."
Richeimer said she is also seeing more attempts at short sales, in which sellers agree to a price that's lower than what they owe the bank. But getting a bank to accept a short sale, in which it forgives the seller the difference between the price of the house and the higher mortgage, is often wishful thinking on the seller's part, she said.
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