In April, the Howard County housing market saw a significant increase in housing demand compared to the previous month; however, the tug-of-war between housing supply deficiencies and growing home prices continues to impact the market, according to the April 2023 Housing Report from the Howard County Association of REALTORS.
According to HCAR, in April the median sold price for residential homes in Howard County was $560,000, representing an increase of 8.7% compared to the previous month, and an increase of 9.4% from April 2022.
The Howard County housing market is starting to gain strength in home demand. As reported by the Bright MLS T3 Home Demand Index, the index for Howard County in April jumped to 141, indicating a rise from steady to high conditions.
Typically, a market with between four and five months of supply indicates a balanced housing market. Currently, there are 0.76 months of supply in Howard County, which is higher than the same time last year. The months-of-supply metric is based on average sales activity during the past 12 months.
New listings were down 40.3% (310) from last year (519) and 5.8% from the previous month (329). The average days on market for units sold was 12 days, which is a 38% decrease from the five-year April average of 19 days.
Active listings in Howard County were up 12.6% (250) compared to the previous year (222). Closed sales (271) saw a 31.9% decrease compared to the previous year (265) and a 2.2% decrease compared to the previous month (271).
There was a 14.3 percent month-over-month increase in new contract activity with 352 new pendings; a 20.2% MoM increase in all pendings (new contracts + contracts carried over from March) to 453; and a 1.6% increase in supply to 250 active units.
This activity resulted in a Contract Ratio of 1.81 pendings per active listing, which is an increase of 1.53 compared to March 2023 and a decrease of 2.57 from April 2022, respectively. The Contract Ratio was 4% higher than the five-year April average of 1.75.
HCAR’s monthly local housing statistics are pulled from the Bright Multiple Listing Service. The Bright MLS service area includes Maryland; Virginia; Washington, D.C.; as well as Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.