Bright MLS has officially published its July 2024 Housing Report, which claims that the Mid-Atlantic is now moving towards a more balanced housing market. To expand upon that, the report discovered how new listing activity in 2024 has been stronger than 2023, and overall new listings are up by 5.5% year-to-date. Furthermore, the number of new listings is reportedly higher than the number of new pending contracts, which is pushing inventory upward. On the other hand, active listings at the end of July 2024 were 24.7% higher than a year ago. Furthermore, months of supply metrics measuring how quickly supply would be depleted if no new homes were added finally hit two months, has now breached the two months mark, the highest level since April 2020. More on the same would reveal that median sold price in the Bright MLS service area in July 2024 was $420,000, deflating from its June peak, a period which is a typical seasonal trend. Having said so, the median sold price in July was still up 5.0% year-over-year. Then, we have the speed of sales, with half the homes sold in July going off market in nine days or less. Explaining significance of it is the fact that homes sold back in July 2019 had remained listed, on an average, for nearly 18 days. Another detail worth a mention here is rooted in the accessibility of mortgage. With mortgage rates sticking above 6 percent and home prices remaining firm in most local markets, affordability is expected to be a big issue throughout the housing market.
Taking a more region-by-region stock of things, for instance, the report would study Philadelphia’s market, where the number of active listings at the end of July was up by 17.9% across metro area. Making suburbs the biggest gainers, this marks fourth month in a row that inventory has climbed. However, despite all the uptick in listings, Philadelphia metro area continues to have a competitive housing market. We say so because half of all homes sold in July were on the market for 10 days or less. Alongside listings, though, home prices also continue to rise, considering the median sold price in July was up by 7.0%, compared to a year ago. Beyond that, we must mention how July had higher closed sales (+13.1%), but at the same time, overall transactions year-to-date are still at a slight deficit (-0.9%).
The next region studied by Bright MLS was Baltimore, a region which saw home sales in the metro area increasing at a 7.9% year-over-year clip in July. Regardless of that, through the year’s first seven months, transactions are still lower than they were in 2023. From the peak of June, the prices would drop to $403,000 in June, but even then, the median sold price is 6.1% higher in July 2024 than July 2023. Markedly enough, townhomes prices rose the fastest of all home types, growing 10.2% year-over-year. Furthermore, while active listings at the end of July 2024 jumped by 30.2%, compared to July 2023, months of supply remains low at only 1.84 months. In fact, Howard County is understood to have just over one month of supply when it comes to active listings.
Beyond Philadelphia and Baltimore, Bright MLS also studied the Washington D.C. region, where active listings were up 28.1% compared to a year ago, marking sixth consecutive month of inventory gains. Furthermore, home sales in the D.C. metro area were up 10.3% in July compared to a year ago, but year-to-date sales continue to track below last year (-1.4%). Another detail gauged in Washington was how the median sold price eased from its record high to $625,000 in July. However, even as the median dipped seasonally between June and July, the median sold price was up 5.9% from last year.
