HF Realtor Forum

The following analysis of the Washington, D.C. Metro and Baltimore Metro Area housing markets has been prepared by Elliot Eisenberg, Ph.D. of MarketStats by ShowingTime and is based on January 2020 Bright MLS housing data. · The Washington D.C. Metro area began the year with a median home price of $444,000, the highest January price of the decade. Prices were up 5.7% or $24,000 from last January, and this marked the 40th consecutive month of year-over-year price increases. · Sales volume across the DC Metro area was over $1.7 billion, up 19.4% over last year. · Closed sales of 2,964 rose by 8.0%, the fifth month in a row of year-over-year increases. · New pending sales were up by 4.0% to 3,979, good news after two months of declines. · New listings were up for the second month in a row, by a pleasant 7.8% to 4,784. · Still, active listings compared to last January were down 14.8% to 5,385, the eighth month in a row of double-digit declines in year-over-year inventory, albeit the smallest lost since last July. · The average percent of original list price received at sale in January was 97.7%, up from last January’s 97.2% and at the highest January level of the decade. Median days-on-market was 26, down from 33 last January.

An important step during settlement process is title search. Normally , the settlement attorney will search the title history for about 50-70 years to ensure the cleanness of the said title. Say there is a major discrepancy, it will jeopardize the settlement processing, in some cases the contract is voided. But most of the discrepancy can be purified in small number of days depending on the nature of the discrepancy. Consequently, this step of settlement warrants the new owner the safety and enjoyment of this property, for many years to come.