Owings Mills, Reisterstown Housing Market Suffers

Like the rest of the country, home prices in the Owings Mills and Reisterstown markets have plunged, in this case more than 24 percent since 2008, according to data from the Coldwell Banker Residential Greenspring Branch.

The average price in those two zip codes in 2011 for a four-bedroom home with two full bathrooms is $291,214, compared to $363,335 in 2008.

On average, that size home in Maryland costs $381,314, according to a home listings report released this month by Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC.

The Owings Mills and Reisterstown communities were not officially among the 32 areas listed in the residential and commercial real estate firm’s survey, which ranked Maryland’s most expensive and most affordable markets that were listed between September 2010 and March 2011.

But the figures were obtained from a local Coldwell Banker office.

Annapolis was ranked as Maryland’s most expensive market, with the average four-bedroom, two-bathroom home listed at $688,232.

Cumberland is the least expensive market, according to the survey, with a home that size going for $160,497.

In the Owings Mills/ Reisterstown area, “it’s simple supply and demand, and supply is exceeding the demand for the moment, for whatever reason,” said Carl Herber, manager of the Coldwell Bank Greenspring Station office, with a coverage area that includes Owings Mills and Reisterstown.

Owings Mills, especially, was “overbuilt” when real estate was booming, he said. Also, the loss of jobs in the area and foreclosures contributed to an increase in supply, he said.

Baltimore County spokeswoman Fronda Cohen said she would not draw a correlation between housing prices and job loss in Owings Mills, which she said has had “little pockets” of smaller layoffs and smaller companies that have moved out of the area.

The biggest recent loss, she said, is the closing of the Solo Cup Plant, which is scheduled to shut its production facility later this year, according to the Baltimore Business Journal.

Glenn Barnes, manager of the Reisterstown real estate office of Long & Foster, said there are few areas in the country that haven’t seen home price reductions.

“I think the key to the residential property values increasing in the future is the success of the commercial corridors,” said Barnes, who is also president of the . “I know if people like the shops and businesses that you have, and they appear to be thriving …  people will want to buy homes in the area.”