WALDORF, Md. — Taking a look at the most recent statistics surrounding Charles County’s real estate market, all signs lead to rather stable conditions in a year-over-year model.
Though the county has been following similar statewide trends such as low inventory levels, the county’s market has shown average and in many cases positive trends surrounding new inventory, sold prices, and selling closer to original list price in many transactions.
Though the state is currently sitting on approximately 2.6 months of inventory in the market— which is down from four months at this time last year— Charles County has seen an uptick in new listings. New listings are up 12.13% across the county, which positively offsets the drop in active inventory which was 11.99%.
Looking next at the average and median sold prices across the county, sellers saw positive gains of 9.36% and 18.18% when compared to this time period in 2018, respectively. That more than doubles the positive statewide average sold price change of 4.5%. Additionally, the entire sold dollar volume across Charles grew, up 18% from $53,408,995 to $63,020,650.
The number of units across the county that sold also saw increases of 8%. Though that numerical increase is only 14 more units when compared to 2018, every additional unit sold creates added stress on the amount of active inventory in the market.
Homes on average are selling in 41 days which is a rather significant decline from last year when that number was 52 days— a 21.15% decrease to the statistic. It would also be considered important to note that a majority of properties that sold over the month, did so in on average less than 10 days. If it is good, it will go.
The last stat that should be noted which helps make a strong case that the market is currently leaning in favor of sellers is the ratio of average sales price to original list price. The ratio saw a positive change of just 0.85%, but that means the ratio is now hovering at around 97.6%. Sellers are getting closer to their original list prices than they were at this time last year, showing they are taking more of a driver’s seat when selling.
Though the market is low on inventory, Charles County has only posted modest returns, whereas many might have anticipated more clear evidence of the market clearly favoring sellers. This is likely a result of Charles County’s geographical location and more metropolitan market trends. Though low inventory is going to make the market feel more favorable to sellers, that could easily change with the new year and a fresh spring market likely around the corner.
All statistics for this article were obtained via the Bright Multiple Listing Service and Maryland Realtors.
Contact Zach at zach.hill@thebaynet.com