Real Estate Market Activity Slowing Down In Howard County: Realtors Report

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — The Howard County Association of Realtors reports home sales are netting better prices than a year ago but market activity seems to be slowing down.

The February 2023 housing report recently released by the association shows that the housing market continues to be impacted by low inventory, increasing home prices and rising mortgage rates in February 2023.

According to HCAR, in February 2023, the median sold price for residential homes in Howard County was $500,000, representing a decrease of 6.4 percent compared to the previous month, and an increase of 14.9 percent from February 2022.

Throughout the Baltimore Metro region, home prices in most of the region’s suburbs were up strongly, with the biggest gain in Howard County where the median price in February was 14.9 percent higher than a year ago. As reported by the Bright MLS T3 Home Demand Index, the index for Howard County in February 2023 remained at 88, indicating slow market conditions.

Typically, a market with between four and five months of supply indicates a balanced housing market. Currently, there are 0.61 months of supply in Howard County, which is higher than a year ago (0.29). The months-of-supply metric is based on average sales activity over the past 12 months. This measure can overstate how rapidly inventory is being consumed in a changing housing market.

New listings were down 28 percent (221) from last year (307) and also down 14 percent from the previous month (257). The average days on market for units sold was 24 days, which is a 29 percent decrease from the five-year February average of 34 days.

Active listings in Howard County were up 63.8 percent (208) compared to the previous year (127). Closed sales (190) saw a 19.8 percent decrease compared to the previous year (237) and a 10.5 percent increase compared to the previous month (172).

There was a 6.4 percent month-over-month (MoM) increase in new contract activity with 249 new pendings; a 16.4 percent MoM increase in all pendings (new contracts plus contracts carried over from January) to 355; and a 5.9 percent decrease in supply to 208 active units.

This activity resulted in a contract ratio of 1.71 pendings per active listing, up from 1.38 in January 2023 and a decrease from 3.46 in February 2022. The contract ratio is nine percent lower than the five-year February average of 1.88.