According to a Baltimore Sun article today (January 15, 2008) —  The National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) chief economist told local real estate agents  that he believes the Baltimore housing market has hit bottom and 2008 should be a better year - assuming buyers don’t sit on the sidelines, anticipating major price drops.

 ”That’s quite a leap,” according to Myles Lichtenberg, Esq, an established real estate title attorney for more than 25 years. Like Mr. Lichtenberg, other economists aren’t so optimistic.

Anirban Basu, chief executive of Sage Policy Group, said yesterday in an interview with the Sun, that he’s sticking to the forecast he gave the Home Builders Association of Maryland: No bottom until next year. “This year I expect to be the year of the falling prices,” Basu said.

Will job growth matter? Continued job growth is helping create pent-up need for homes, some say, while mortgage interest rates have fallen below 6 percent, a two-year low.

Are foreclosures the driver? Although falling mortgage rates will help the local housing market, many believe that rising foreclosures will weigh more heavily on the downside this year. Though Maryland is in the middle of the pack for the share of borrowers behind on their payments, the number has been shooting upward in recent months, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Foreclosures push up inventory. As lenders foreclose and try to resell the homes, that will add to the inventory. Already, the number of homes for sale in the Baltimore metro area is so high that it would take 10 months to find buyers for them all at December’s pace of sales, according to Metropolitan Regional Information Systems data.

No one knows the future, but here at www.MarylandCommercialTitle.com, we’ll be watching all the events as they unfold. Stay tuned!

Tags: Baltimore, Real Estate Trend

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