The Real Estate Wonk

Moving! Follow the Real Estate Wonk to new home

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:37:00 GMT

The Real Estate Wonk has moved -- fitting, for a blog about housing. You can tag along to the new location by going to baltimoresun.com/realestatewonk. The new ...

Realtors to rally against proposed change affecting Md. mortgage-interest deduction

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Realtors have kicked off a campaign to keep legislators from approving a budget proposal that would reduce the amount of itemized deductions higher-income Maryl A taxpayer with an adjusted gross income of $150,000 and $24,000 in itemized deductions would pay $191 extra in Maryland taxes under the proposal, Gui ...

9 months of housing-market supply -- for now

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT

It would take nine months to sell all the homes on the market in the Baltimore region at the pace people are buying these days, in case you were wondering.That' And on top of that, you've got both would-be buyers and would-be sellers sitting things out for now. When they choose to get off the sidelines will af ...

What the robo-signing settlement means for all borrowers

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT

If you're not in trouble on a mortgage and didn't lose your home to foreclosure in the last few years, you might think the national settlement between state att o More rules about suspense accounts. When payments are put in such accounts, servicers must tell the borrower and apply money from the account to the ...

Crime, school and amenities data paired with real estate

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Real estate search site Trulia now has neighborhood data on crime, schools and other things that aren't real estate but that homebuyers and prospective renters ...

Company town

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Pete from Highlandtown, one of my favorite commenters here (though I love you all), touched on a subject this week that everyone in the region should be giving Some local economists warned for years that the rapidly increasing amount of federal contracting dollars flowing to Maryland would inevitably have to ...

Few bedrooms, big price

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT

You'd be forgiven for thinking that pricey homes always have a lot of bedrooms. They so often do. Take this seven-bedroom spread in Annapolis. Or this 12-bedroo When it comes down to it, though, how many bedrooms does a mansion really need? I mean, is anyone entertaining enough to make 30 bedrooms a must-hav ...

Md. foreclosures since 2006: Almost 50,000

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:05:00 GMT

Mortgage firms have foreclosed on about 49,600 homes in Maryland since the final days of the inflating housing bubble in January 2006, real estate data firm Cor ...

Renting by default or by choice

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT

As the homeownership rate drops, the renter ranks swell. Some are renting because it's the only option, except possibly crashing with family, but others could b ...

Proposal would help state keep banks from getting homeowner tax breaks

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT

A reader wrote in the other day because she discovered that her former neighbor's house, foreclosed on several years ago, is still listed in public records as i Robert E. Young, director of the assessments agency, said the department-requested SB 123 would require that foreclosing firms forward a copy of the c ...

Where Baltimore-area residents would rather be

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Real estate search site Trulia says the Baltimore region is seventh on the list of metro areas with the weakest demand among the online search crowd -- specific It's an eerily similar list. 1. The Washington area 2. The Bethesda-Rockville-Frederick area 3. The NYC area 4. The Philadelphia area 5. The Sali ...

Fast home sales, slow home sales

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Above: The homes that sold in the Baltimore region in December, organized by how quickly -- or slowly -- they went from listed to under contract.The bre To put it into perspective: 415 homes that sold in December -- not that many more than the 30-and-under group -- had been on the market more than six ...

New proposal for ground-rent registry

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:30:00 GMT

For those of you with a vested interest in (or just curiosity about) ground rent: The newest twist in the saga is a bill aimed at the registry.Fourteen state de ...

'Stealing Trust' screening event in Baltimore

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:00:00 GMT

If you haven't had your recommended daily dose of outrage, here's an upcoming source: The Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition is showing its "Stealing Trust ...

What N.Y., Del. and a few other states are doing about mortgage misconduct

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:14:27 GMT

State attorneys general gathered in Chicago or by conference call Monday to go over possible terms for a deal with large banks over foreclosure wrongdoing, but Also in December, California and Nevada's attorneys general said their offices have teamed up on civil and criminal investigations into mortgage misco ...

Youngest homeowners least satisfied with homeownership

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:00:00 GMT

If you're a dissatisfied homeowner, chances are you're young.That's the takeaway from real estate search site HomeGain's latest survey, which asked Americans w Setting aside age and just looking at the length of time someone has owned their home, the group with the highest share of satisfaction isn't the one ...

How home prices in the Baltimore area stack up

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Home prices in the Baltimore area fell about 4 percent last year, which is either bad or good, depending on your perspective. If you take the position that it's Ninety of the 363 metro areas saw the typical price for resold homes rise between the end of 2010 and the end of last year, with a few others holdin ...

Report: Rents increased 5% in Baltimore region in 2011

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:00:00 GMT

The typical rent for a two-bedroom rental in the Baltimore region rose 5 percent last year, according to real estate search site HotPads.com.The company, which The increases vary a lot within the metro area, from just 0.2 percent in Baltimore's northern suburbs -- basically flat -- to more than 8 percent in t ...

Clear Capital: Baltimore-area home prices dropped 6% in 2011

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Real estate data firm Clear Capital puts the Baltimore region's price drop last year at 6.2 percent, a figure calculated from repeat sales of homes to try to ca Clear Capital also weighed in with a forecast, because everyone has 'em.The company predicts that home prices will fall 4.9 percent in the Baltimore r ...

2012 resolutions

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:00:00 GMT

I'm still sick, so I don't have energy for much except asking a few questions.What are you hoping to accomplish this year? Pay down debt? Save a down payment? F ...

When will home prices return to bubble-era levels?

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Moody's Analytics is predicting that home prices in the Baltimore region will climb back to previous peaks in five or six years. Do you think that's likely? Wha ...

Baltimore-area housing market in 2011

Jamie Smith Hopkins — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Here's the early look at the 2011 housing market in the Baltimore area: table.tableizer-table {border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif Celia Chen, a housing economist for Moody’s Analytics, said Tuesday that homes prices in the Baltimore region are down about 22 percent from their pea ...