Ryan Haley, broker and owner of Atlantic Shores Sotheby’s International Realty, provides updates on the Ocean City, Maryland real estate market conditions in March 2021.
We’ve seen a lot of activities and continued enthusiasm for beach and second-home real estate in the month of March 2021. This trend is continuing, and we’re getting busier as summer approaches.
Key Numbers in Ocean City Real Estate in March 2021
Inventory is down during the month of March. To put it in perspective, in March 2020, there were 602 homes for sale in the 10 miles of beach area. In March 2021, there were 158 homes for sale, down 73% from last year.
It should be noted that the lockdowns started in March of last year, so the numbers were magnified as sales went down significantly during that time.
However, the unique thing is that the number of new listings in March 2021 was up 32% from last year, with 216 new properties hitting the market in March 2021, compared to 163 new listings in the previous year. This means that more properties are coming onto the market, but the demand is outpacing the actual number of active listings.
Higher Number of Sales in March 2021
We saw 211 sales in March, which is a 41% increase from 149 sales last year.
What’s interesting to note is that of those properties sold in March, 26% of the sales were cash transactions. This created some frustrations from some buyers as when they found the property they liked, they usually got into a multiple-offer situation and went up against buyers with cash and different types of financing. On the part of the seller, cash is always king!
List Sales Price Increase
Last year in March, buyers were expected to pay about 95% of the list price. This year, this figure has increased to around 99%, with many of the properties being sold over the list price.
These are just some of the interesting facts that we’re seeing in the Ocean City real estate market.
If there’s anything that we can do to assist you, please don’t hesitate to contact us.