Real Estate Information Archive

Home sales across the Baltimore area continued to increase in June by nearly 9 percent, while median sale prices also took their biggest jump in three years.

During the month, 2,579 homes sold across Greater Baltimore, according to Rockville market research firm Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. That was up from 2,375 in June 2009.

The median sale price in the Baltimore area — Baltimore City and Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, Carroll County, Harford County and Howard County — increased 2 percent to $255,000. That was up from $250,000 during the same month last year. In May the median sale price dropped more than 4 percent to $235,000.

MRIS’ report comes one day after Clear Capital released data saying the Baltimore area was among two major markets not to see housing prices rise in the past year.

Meantime, the average number of days home stayed on the market in June across the Baltimore area also improved to 100 days, a more than 17 percent decline, according to MRIS.

In Baltimore City, the number of homes sold in June increased 11 percent to 579 compared with 521 during the month last year. But the median sale price of homes fell nearly 8 percent to $143,000.

Baltimore County home sales jumped nearly 1 percent to 681, and the median sale price held steady at nearly $230,000.

Anne Arundel County saw the biggest bump in home sales in the Baltimore area. Sales increased more than 15 percent to 556 in June. The median sale price spiked 5 percent to $325,000.

Nick Gioia | www.NGRealtyGroup.com

Maryland is on track in its preparations for the thousands of new workers and residents who will come here in the next two years as part of the U.S. military’s massive base-consolidation initiative, said a new state report released this week.

Partnerships between state, federal and local agencies and businesses to deal with scarce water supplies, preserve an estimated 9,000 units of rental housing and train new workers and help school-age children of military families transition to their new schools, are all part of Maryland’s preparations for the Base Realignment and Closure plan, according to the progress report by Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown. Brown chairs Gov. Martin O’Malley’s BRAC subcabinet, overseeing efforts to prepare Maryland for the estimated 25,000 new military and civilian jobs coming to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County and Fort Goerge G. Meade in Anne Arundel County by 2011.

“Two years ago, we presented Gov. O’Malley with the BRAC Action Plan,” Brown said in a press release Tuesday. “Since then, we have been running the plays in that book and Maryland is ready for BRAC.”

Maryland is making progress to equip the state’s work force for the new job opportunities and build the infrastructure to support all the new arrivals, the report said. It won’t be easy, however, as Maryland faces a $1.8 billion state budget shortfall that will challenge the state to find the funding needed to expand roads, build mass transit and develop other infrastructure. The state will allocate $885 million this year for BRAC-related projects, part of the more than $2.7 billion the state has spent on the effort to date.

Among the other steps cited in the report, are:

• A bill that makes it easier for plumbers, engineers, HVAC contractors and others moving to Maryland because of BRAC to transfer their licenses here;

• The designation of BRAC Zones in the city of Aberdeen and Howard County; and,

• $98 million in state Department of Transportation funding for intersection improvement projects.

Nick Gioia | www.ngrealtygroup.com