The stats are in for October.  Like pretty much every month lately, it’s good news and bad news.  Let’s start with the good stuff!

Sales volume is UP about 40% in Montgomery and Howard Counties.  So people *are* buying homes.  That’s the good news.

The question is: what are people buying?  It’s certainly NOT expensive homes.  There were a mere 247 sales in all of Montgomery County priced above $500,000 last month (26.2% of the total sales), compared with 695 sales under $500k.  In Howard, 53 sales topped the $500,000 mark (or 19.9%)., while 214 sold for under $500k.

While sales volume is up, prices remain flat.  The median sale price is down 10.8% in Montgomery to $330,000.  In Howard the median price fell 8.5% to 325,000.  (The median sale price is the price at which half the houses sold for more, and half sold for less.)

Days on market is down significantly from last year in both MoCo and HoCo, to right at 80 days on average in both counties.  This is about a 30% reduction in selling time in both counties.

Nationally, rehab and investor loan volume is up.  Given these statistics, it’s clear that distressed properties, sold at a discount, are being removed from inventory. 

Active listings are heading down in a seasonal pattern; however, even taking seasonality into account, the available inventory has decreased significantly.  Sales volume is up, again looking beyond the seasonal variations.  These two trends, decreased inventory and increased sales, bode well for market stabilization.  Barring any major shock to the system (shadow REO inventory being dumped on the market, prolonged economic woes, etc.), the trend appears to be one toward stabilization of prices.