AROUND THE PARK AGAIN by Sharon Lee Tegler
Brought to you by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi
and Lean On Dee Senior Home Care Services
If you are seeing few For Sale signs in front of homes in your neighborhood, you are not alone. Wondering why that is happening, we sought out two of our area’s busiest residential realtors.
We caught up with realtor Matt Wyble, who is Managing Partner of Next Step Realty South, in his Annapolis office. Having merged with area brokerage Next Step Realty a year ago, Wyble and his managing partners Lynn Peaper and Joe Smith III will be opening a Severna Park branch shortly.
In the meantime, with the weather warming, we’ll likely find the Severna Park native and 4th generation realtor Wyble grabbing a cup of coffee between client meetings behind The Big Bean in Olde Severna Park.
We arranged to meet with realtor Theresa Kurtz, between showings at an Edgewater restaurant last week.
Kurtz, who operates more or less independently, told us that, following a slowdown in late autumn and winter, home sales have really picked up. The real estate market she covers in the Anne Arundel, Charles, Harford and Prince George’s County areas as well as Kent Island and the Eastern Shore is so hot that only about a month’s inventory of houses currently exists. She’s now receiving multiple offers for every property. On Kent Island, she sold a house to a young man last spring and he’s already sold it for more than he paid for it.
“There’s also a huge Four Seasons 55 Plus community that’s building on Kent Island that is kickin’ and offering condos for $600,000 to a million dollars.” she said.
She admits that demand is high so it’s easy to find prospective buyers. Finding sellers is much harder, however, which is why we’re seeing so few “For Sale” signs.
Wyble and partners’ Next Step Realty South team of 95 agents handles the sale of residential properties across Maryland with emphasis on Anne Arundel, Howard and Queen Anne’s Counties as well as Baltimore City and surrounding Baltimore County. He notes that Anne Arundel County sees the highest number of sales. There’s only a two-week inventory of homes available in highly desirable Severna Park and prices are soaring higher and higher.
“When I started in the real estate business with Champion in 2010, I remember our office manager saying if the governor shut down all new listings and we had to sell everything that was active before we could list something new, we had almost four years of inventory at that point,” Wyble said. “Now, in Severna Park there are between five and twenty buyers for every house. I’m seeing “Sold” signs pop up on all the properties we have listed within a very short window of time.
Kurtz believes high interest rates have definitely impacted the tight housing market.
“People who have a house to sell are saying to themselves ‘Oh, gosh, where am I going to go and not pay 7% interest?’ But sometimes they’re in a situation where they have to sell,” she said. “What works in the seller’s favor, though, is that we’re back to multiple offer situations now. The market is so competitive I just had five offers on a home in Severna Park, which has the highest per capita income in the state, that sold for $66,000 over the asking price.”
Kurtz feels that inflation’s downward pull on the economy – with credit card debt through the roof – causes people to think twice about relocating. However, she is handling sales for some “downsizers” who mostly want to move out of Maryland to states like Tennessee or North Carolina because of the tax breaks.
From Matt Wyble’s point of view, several factors are at play beyond high interest rates. He and managing partners Peaper and Smith noticed that the lengthy Covid pandemic made people realize just how important a home is to them.
“We’re now four years from the start of the pandemic when people had time to reflect on whether they liked or loved living where they were,” Wyble said. “People who lived in the city were envious of friends who lived in the suburbs and could play with their children in their backyards while they were stuck inside their apartments. People who lived in the suburbs envied those who lived in the country where there was more land or small farms. People also realized that remote work expanded their horizons. What resulted was pent up demand in the post-Covid market for houses in the burbs or the countryside. What we’re left with is the lack of inventory Covid helped create.”
For Next Step Realty South, Severna Park properties comprise the most concentrated market for buyers and command the highest prices – going for $700,000 and upward. Wyble believes the reason is threefold. In his experience, the two biggest buyer groups were people who were militarily or privately relocating for work. Another group has been made up of people like him who graduated from college and wanted to move back. Recently, there’s another group of people, from across the country, that have no ties to Severna Park but have heard about the community, its water access, and its good schools and they want to move here. Neither Kurtz or Wyble deal with rental properties but both are aware that the problem of low inventory is even more critical in that market and rents are historically high and evictions are on the rise.
Michelle Sabean, development director of SPAN, Inc., pointed to a report from the Arundel Community Development Services (which administers the federal eviction funds in this area) noting that as 2023 ended evictions were increasing with the end of Pandemic financial support.
“SPAN has seen the need for emergency financial assistance increase dramatically – more than 2.5 times the amount SPAN assists with in a typical year,” Sabean added.
While both Matt Wyble and Theresa Kurtz think residential real estate prices are likely to continue on their upward swing even if the Federal Reserve drops interest rates by a percentage point or two, there could be a few positive developments.
Kurtz said she’s recently encountered a number of downsizers. She reports that most plan to move out of the state and that may free up a few more properties.
We were finishing our interview when realtor Jessica DuLaney (with The W Home Group of Next Step Realty) walked into the office. She announced that she’d just written an offer on a house in Towson built in the 1930’s and located in a cute neighborhood, pleasing Wyble no end.
“We had seven offers with six buyers waiving the inspection. The house went for $60,000 over the asking price,” she said.
Wyble hopes to be seeing more great properties on the market. He and his partners are close to settling on a location for the Severna Park branch of Next Step Realty and he’ll keep us posted.
Celebrate Maryland Day with the Severn Crossroads Foundation
The Severn Cross Roads Foundation will be participating in a statewide Maryland Day Celebration this year. On Sunday, March 24, they’ll be hosting an Open House in their 1840’s schoolhouse behind Historic Baldwin Hall at 1358 Millersville Road. Docents will be on hand from 1 pm to 3 pm to share stories about the history of the schoolhouse and about education in the mid-19th century.
Light refreshments will be available. Severn Crossroad Foundation members invite you to bring your children and grandchildren to get a little glimpse of the history of the Severn Cross Roads area. For information, visit Winter/Spring 2024 | baldwinhall.
The Around The Park Again column is brought to you this week by Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu and Tai Chi at 1195 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd. – For over two decades providing martial arts training that improves cardio-vascular health, strength and flexibility while reducing stress. Jing Ying is again bringing Tai Chi to the Severna Park Community Center.)
and by Lean On Dee Senior Home Care Services at 815 Ritchie Hwy., Suite 206 – When you need someone to lean on, Lean On Dee. Their experienced team of personal care management specialists and friendly companions provide high quality consistent care.
