The real estate market in the DC Metro, Baltimore Metro, Northern Virginia and Greater DC area continued to strengthen in 2012.  We decided to take a closer look at the year-over-year trends for a variety of metrics and identify some Top Fives per region.  Most Expensive, Most Affordable, Biggest Price Increase, Biggest Increase in Sales, Shortest DOM, Longest DOM, and which ZIP codes had the lowest or highest sales to list price ratio per region. 

Of all ZIP codes analyzed, 22206 in Great Falls had the highest median sale price at $961,250. Baltimore's 21223 had the lowest median price at $18,000. 22205 in Arlington had the lowest Median DOM, where half the homes sold were on the market 10 days or less!

Condos lead in sales, new contracts, and price gains

OVERVIEW

The Baltimore Metro housing market has experienced considerable improvement this past year.  Most indicators point to a healthier market going into 2013, and the trend continues in December with year-over-year growth in sales, new pending contracts, and the median sale price.  The most striking aspect of the 2012 market has been the diminishing supply of homes for sale.  Active listings continue to plunge, and have fallen below 10,000 for the first time since February 2006.  This pattern appears to be slowly changing, as new contracts have been hovering around the 2011 level for the past 5 months.  The condo market continues to see the most growth activity, and leads in year-over-year gains in sales, new contracts, and median sale price.  As we continue through the winter season, it is unlikely that a dramatic surge of new listings will enter the market.  This should keep upward pressure on prices as long as buyers remain active.  If the inventory becomes too low, many buyers might decide to wait it out until more options become available, which could bring prices down in the near term.