Frederick County Short Sale Blog | Homes for Sale in Frederick Md

or later, according to a survey from the market research firm Harris Interactive.  An online survey from April 15-19, 2011 done for Trulia.com and Realtytrac.com took responses from 2,018  U.S. adults — 1,257 were homeowners, 704 were renters, and 57 identified themselves as neither(?).  (This might be the 85% of college graduates that have moved back home with mom and dad because they are underemployed.)

More than half, 54%, believe the housing market won’t recover until 2014 or later, up from 34 percent in a similar survey in November 2010.  Read details of the study.

Foreclosures,  joblessness, and changing attitudes towards home ownership are components to the lack of sales and flat or sliding prices, depending on the area of the Country.

The president of Trulia, a real estate website, predicts it will be another 18 months before home prices begin to stabilize.

Rick Sharga, senior vice president of RealtyTrac, expects prices to bottom this year.

Both are not expecting prices to rise. Prices will flat-line there for the next couple of years.  "Prices won't increase in any real manner until, best-case scenario, 2014,” Sharga said. 

The Local Frederick County Real Estate Market

This is the part where I reassert that all real estate is local.  National real estate statistics don’t necessarily indicate what is happening in the local market.  Frederick is in close proximity to Washington D.C. and has the benefit of the economy which is strongly supported by government.  Unemployment is usually lower because the government never goes out of business.  Recessions hit the Metropolitan area last and recovery hits the are first.

Unemployment in Frederick County spiked at a high of 7.5% in February 2010, and as of March 2011 it was 6.3%, well below the national average of 10.6% in Feb. 2010 and 9.2% in March 2011.  Average Real Estate prices in Frederick County have been bumping along at a bottom for a year, with ups and downs of 3- 5% from month to month.

Frederick Foreclosures

Foreclosures in Frederick County are at 1 in every 1308 according to RealtyTrac.com statistics.  This number has steadily come down from a high of 1 in about 1000 in 2009.

So when will we see a real estate recovery in Frederick County?  As we see more distressed sales trickle on to the market, even though there are less of them than 1-2 years ago, they are still a strong anchor on prices.  We do, however, see demand picking up and certain neighborhoods are no longer declining in price.  As far as prices rising county-wide, that is not a likely scenario for the next year or two.

The Highland Group