P.G. County Ranked 12th Worst Housing Market for 2010

• January 11th 2010

by Tim Brown

A report released recently from the website Housing Predictor forecasts that Prince George’s County will be one of the worst performing markets in 2010. In a qualitative study done by the website, the county will sustain double digit deflation in 2010, making it the 12th worst housing market in the country.

Prince George’s County was among the last of the Washington area counties to be affected by the housing boom. The affordability it offered was overshadowed by high crime rates, a struggling school system, and its distance from the region’s largest employment centers. As neighboring jurisdictions became less and less affordable to homebuyers, more people began looking for homes in the county. It experienced its own construction boom, but the collapse of the housing market left it with a huge surplus of inventory and several unfinished developments. It was also hit particularly hard by mortgage fraud, and now has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the metro area.

Data from MRIS, the DC area’s multiple listings service (MLS), paints a picture similar to Housing Predictor’s report. According to Christopher Richardson of RE/MAX Professionals, the average home price in the county in November 2009 was $218,027, down from $264,885 just one year ago. Richardson attributed the sharp price decline to foreclosures, which increased sharply doing that time period.

Despite the grim prospects for the county, there are several programs that may aid in helping speed its recovery. In addition to the federal homebuyer tax credit, there is the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. This program gives buyers down payment and closing cost help to buy vacant foreclosed properties. Also, in an effort to crack down on mortgage fraud, several amendments were made to the state’s Protection of Homeowners and Foreclosure Act, and the county now has its own Mortgage Fraud Unit.

Housing Predictor composed its list of the Worst 25 Markets based on cities that have the highest probability of reaching their forecast price deflation in 2010. The forecast is based on research that examines twenty market characteristics, including income levels, employment and business trends, regional political influences, real estate sales history and current housing market velocity. It gathers this information from “hundreds of independent sources the staff develops without bias to the real estate industry” to develop these forecasts.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/p.g._county_ranked_12th_worst_housing_market_for_2010/1664.