15 homes changed hands in Edgewood, MD in October of 2011, down over 20% from October of 2010. The number of active listings also decreased- even more substantially- by 28% from 187 to 134. Although the totals actually show less overall activity, looking at the estimated months of inventory shows something slightly different. The number of places that sold last year, versus the amount of homes on the market, indicated that there was almost 10 months of active inventory. Evaluate this against this year’s 9 months of inventory, and it shows a slight improvement.

The average time it took to sell a home in Edgewood, MD increased by almost 30% from 110 to 141 days. This can be attributed to the number of short sales on the market versus the number of foreclosures that we saw listed during this time last year. Also, 10 of the 15 transactions that took place utilized FHA financing, which, because of the latest processing regulations, have been taking a lot longer to complete.

The median price of homes sold dropped by almost 23%, from $161,900 to $125,000 this October. Also, the median price for an active listing in Edgewood is down as well to $129,880, showing a rather dramatic drop in values. Despite a few consecutive months of decreasing inventory and values, we can’t really forecast any improvement in the housing market until the prices bottom out.