Howard County home prices continued to soften last month, and may well continue to do so through the first quarter of 2009.

Realtor owned Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (“MRIS”) just released the latest figures for Howard County Maryland home sales for August 2008.  Among other services, MRIS allows Howard County home buyers direct access to all homes for sale in Howard County.

Of 1,923 homes for sale county-wide, 275 sold, or roughly 1 in 7.  The average sale price of $438,483 was a 7% drop from August 2007 ($471,740).  The average “days on market”, or time it took to attract a contract, was nearly four months at 108 days (a 54% increase over August 2007′s 70 days).

With the continuing soft real estate market in Howard County, it is more important than ever to “price it right” to begin with.  Numerous studies by the National Association of Realtors confirm that overpricing a home in the beginning typically leads to a much longer time on market and, after numerous price drops, a final sale price significantly lower than homes that are priced accurately to begin with.

How can you get an accurate idea of your home’s value?  First, focus on actual sale prices of homes that have sold, not the “asking price” of homes that haven’t sold. (You can request a list of recently sold Howard County homes here).  You can ask an local realtor to give you a market valuation (be sure they are familiar with your neighborhood or village within Howard County), or get a bank appraiser to appraise your home (typical cost $400).

One additional option – you can request a Free AccuPrice valuation of your Howard County home online.

Fall may bring a bit of relief to home sellers – we’ll talk about that in the next entry.  JT

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