Irishmom-question for you (Columbia, Elkridge, Odenton: sales, home sales, contractors)

[rfstrong]

I saw in a post below you said you think home prices will rise in Columbia with the base bringing in all the contractors. Is it Ft. Meade? Do you know when it's slated to open? Thanks.

[starr71]

I'm not Irishmom, but I'll take a stab at your question. She is most likely talking about the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) that will be affecting Ft. Meade. Ft. Meade is already in existence, but government and military personnel are due to start relocating there as soon as 2009, I believe. All of the areas around Ft. Meade will be impacted by this, including Columbia, Elkridge, Odenton, Laurel, Hanover, etc.

Hope this helps.

[rfstrong]

That does help, thank you. My husband and I are looking for a place in Columbia now and definitely want to get in before everyone starts coming into the area-looks like it needs to be early 2008.

[TeamBenya]

I wouldn't jump the gun just yet.... Ask a realtor to run the sales figures for the region and find out a few things:

1) How many homes are on the market right now
2) How many homes are selling each month
3) How many new listings are there each month.


As long as there are more new listings than sales monthly, you're not going to see a general rise in prices; that's simply supply and demand. When you look at how many home are on the market, ask your realtor to run a trend chart showing # of Listings to # of Sales over the last 7 years. I run these charts monthly for my clients, and they really help to makes sense of each local market. What you're going to see is that the ratios in Columbia are roughly 7-10x higher than they have been over the last 7 years.

Why does this matter? Because it will show you how long it's going to take before listings and sales fall into an acceptable ratio. Until those two numbers are much closer together, prices will be stagnant at best.

The Base re-alignment will be a big benefit to the region, but you need to look county wide to see how many homes are available and how many people will actually be moving into the area as well as moving out. Again, a good realtor should be able to find that info for you. Don't assume that just because there is the re-alignment coming that it's going to massively boost home sales.

All that being said, rates are still low and if you're careful about it you can definately find some great deals. Just be careful not to work off of sales reports for your county, make sure that they are run by zip code. It can make a huge difference and you always want to make sure your information is as accurate as possible.