Maryland’s housing market continued its strong sales pace in 2021 with March sales figures of 7,964 units sold, which outpaced the previous year’s sales of 7,148 by 11.4 percent. The average sales price, $404,606, reflected an increase of 11.3 percent from March 2020, while the March 2021 median sales price of $342,500 outpaced the previous year by 8.7 percent. An indicator of how fast the market is moving, median days on market, dropped to just 7 days in March.
Housing inventory, or the lack thereof, remains the overarching concern with the current market. For the first three months of 2021, months of inventory has remained at 0.8, while the pool of active inventory has continued to shrink. March 2021’s active inventory was recorded at 6,202—a shadow of March 2020’s active inventory, which stood at 19,061.
“Home sales are continuing at a formidable pace. Even pending units — houses under contract — are up substantially, at 10,337, an increase of 35.4 percent from last year,” said Dee Miller, president, Maryland REALTORS, “but yes, the concern remains with available inventory. With fewer homes available to sell, it’s driving the price up, which is good for sellers, but it could drive some potential buyers out of the market. The number of new listings showed a small increase, from 10,441 in March 2020 to 10,970 in 2021 but this is not likely to have a significant impact on other factors driving this market.”
“Today’s market is so hot and so rare that over half of homes are being sold above the listed price in some states,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of REALTORS. “After this current real estate cycle, I do not ever expect to see another frenzy [of] multiple offers in my lifetime.”
From NAR data, 42 percent of the existing homes sold in Maryland were sold above the list price.