Housing crisis continues in Carroll with sales dropping 22.9% in May, compared with last year

The number of houses sold in Carroll County in May dropped more than 20% compared with a year ago, as inventory shrinks and prices rise. Industry experts called the current housing market “a crisis.”

Last month, 148 houses were sold, a 22.9% drop from May 2023, when 192 houses were sold, according to statistics released June 18 by Maryland Realtors, a nonprofit real estate association that provides resources and support to area real estate agents.

The average home price last month was $506,043, up 1.5% from May 2023, when the average home price was $498,349. Last month, there were 191 houses on the market, compared with 208 in May 2023.

“It’s the same situation as last year,” said Terry Bass, president of Carroll County Realtors. “We’re in a housing crisis.”

Bass said statewide the situation is much the same. High housing prices are a result of not enough homes being available for sale in the county and throughout the state.

“There is a shortage of houses [for sale],” she said. “The numbers speak for themselves. There just isn’t a lot of inventory.”

In Maryland, housing sales dropped 3.4% in May, when compared with May 2023, according to Maryland REALTORS. At the same time, average sales prices jumped 6% to $514,062.

“The housing stats for May read like a spring housing market in the midst of an inventory crisis,” Chris Hill, president of Maryland REALTORS stated in a June 18 news release.

“Of the homes that are on the market, they’re gone in seven days, at ever-increasing prices,” Hill said.

What is missing in the current housing market is affordable homes for middle-income families and first-time homebuyers.

“Adding new inventory, especially ‘middle housing,’ will help to ease this housing crisis while making housing more affordable,” Hill said. “We need every county in this state to explore how they can add this sort of housing to their communities, for their citizens, of course, but for their local economics as well.”

Bass said affordable housing includes small ranchers and town houses for first-time homebuyers.