WesBanco

March stays strong despite rising rates

Days on market decline after eight-month increase

(LOWER EASTERN SHORE, MD.) – Mortgage rates have been climbing recently and are reaching levels we haven’t seen since 2011.

As rates go up, we would expect to see a cooling off of the market but because of low inventory and an urgency to get into a home before rates get any higher, March continued to be a very strong month.

The most notable change this month was the Median Cumulative Days on Market (CDOM) which had been slowly going up for the last eight months dropped significantly from 17 days in February to 8 days in March. Buyers are not waiting to decide on a property.

The CDOM is down 33.3 percent from March 2021 and down 53 percent from February 2022. The median home price is 10.8 percent higher than it was in March 2021 but is down 2.3 percent from last month February 2022.

We currently have only 368 active listings in the lower three counties compared to 490 in March 2021 and 1,389 in March 2020 when the pandemic began.

In all three counties throughout March, new settlements were down 17 percent compared to the same time last year.

Individually, new settlements throughout March were up by 11.5 percent in Somerset and down 20.6 percent in Wicomico, and 18 percent in Worcester. New listings in March were down 15.6 percent compared to the same time last year in all three counties. Individually, new listings were down by 22.1 percent in Worcester, 3.3 percent in Wicomico, and 7.7 percent in Somerset from March of 2021. Active listings in all three counties were down by 24.9 percent from March of 2021.

Individually, there were 179 active listings in Worcester, 132 in Wicomico, and 57 in Somerset. “The market is still very strong but with interest rates starting to rise we may see some slowing as buyers leave the market,” said Coastal Association of Realtors President Grace Masten.

“We still have very little inventory, only 0.9 months in March, and buyers taking a little more time and increasing the days on market would Continued on page 6