Home prices up & supply is down

BALTIMORE - Theo and Shari Harris have been looking for the last six months, and they still haven’t found their next home.

"We're even looking in all price ranges and not seeing what we want, because there's just no inventory," said Shari.

That from a couple who’ve also built their own real estate company over the last four  years.

That’s right.

They opened their Keller William Real Estate franchise on Canton Square in 2008 just in time for the housing bust.

They sold 125 homes that first year, and now they average that many each month.

"Baltimore is rocking it," said Theo, and he has the numbers to prove it.

In the last year, Harris says home sales for the month of July jumped by $10 million and the average price of a home in Baltimore jumped up $28,000 while less homes were actually sold.

"This is sort of good news believe it or not,” said Harris, “This is the only category that we're seeing less percentage-wise, because the market has gone up.  We're seeing a steady increase in buyers.  That's because there are less houses for sale in Baltimore City."

Harris says many people who are under water on their homes are sitting on them or renting them, which along with pent up demand, is creating this new shortage in the market.

"We've seen a small adjustment in prices... multiple contracts on properties,” said Shari, “We're seeing that from the brokerage side as well."

They are further signs that housing could be slowly rebounding making it a seller’s market in the process.

*CoreLogic reports a 3.8% increase in national home prices, and according to the Maryland Association of Realtors, home prices in Maryland have risen at that same rate.