Pristine Colonial. Over 3,000 square feet. Five bedrooms. Two and one half baths. Gourmet Kitchen. Separate dining room. Living room. Family room. Theater room. Rec room. Exercise room. Finished basement. Shows like a model home. Wood floors. Grand foyer entrance. Designer colors. Short Sale.  Third party approval has been started.

Jumbo Luxury, End Unit, Townhouse.  Shows like a model home.  Over 2,600 square feet.  Wood floors, master bedroom with connecting master bath and separate shower and soaking tub.  Walk-in closets. Wrap around porch. Deck.  Vinyl siding.  Community pool, community center and storage area (for boats, trailers, and motor homes). Priced to sell. FHA, USDA financing available.

Almost 3/4 acre in Hunter's Point Subdivision. Hardwood floors. Master bedroom has a walk-in closet, master bath with soaking tub, and a separate shower. Great property for FHA, USDA, and FHA 203k. Priced to sell quickly.

13.4 Acres +/-, mobile home, shop, barn, and three separately deeded mobile home lots. Mobile home lots leased. Sellers use property for horses and for commercial truck parking and operations. A couple of acres are zoned BN (business use). Great location. Lots of possibilities. Not far from Maryland state line.

Immaculate, custom built, with quality throughout! Main level has 9' ceilings, Virginia plank flooring, foyer & Dining Room, cozy Sunroom overlooks pool, Great Room with fireplace, Kitchen with breakfast nook, Sitting Room, Family Room could be nice in-law suite, Office, Mud room with half bath. In-ground pool with nice patio/decking and fencing, paved drive, security system, lawn irrigation. Upgrades Galore!

Views of the Chesapeake Bay. Includes a pier on Back Creek which is right down the street. Make this your second home or year round retirement home or getaway haven. Crabbing and fishing opportunites all around and many opportunities to purchase fresh local seafood in the area. Potential owner financing.

Great farming/hunting property. 50 tillable acres, 25 acres wooded and 2 ponds. 3 bedrooms, 2 bath farm house with new wiring, plumbing, drywall, windows, exterior doors, recessed lighting. Huge eat-in kitchen.  Family room could be formal dining room.  Mud room and a separate utility room.  60 x 16 pole shed.  25 x 12 shed, 40 x 16 dog run. Peaceful sunsets & sunrises complete the picture!

Lovely home in town of Denton. Front entrance foyer. Wood burning fireplace. Eat-in kitchen with center island. Bay window in dining area. Master bedroom suite. Wall to wall carpeting. Lots of lighting. Attached 2-car garage with shelving and work bench. Rear deck for outdoor entertaining. Good size lot with nicely landscaped yard. Easy access to Rt. 404.

178 Acres +/- consisting of mostly well drained soils.  Productive grain farm with an old Victorian farm house (not habitable) and multiple farm buildings atop a hill.  An additional 5 + acre parcel, located on the SW corner of Rt. 301 and Rt. 19 is also available for $95,000.  This is a very desirable location, a short drive to the Chesapeake Bay bridge and to Middletown, DE, and other locations in Delaware.

View of large open farm across Behtlehem Road. Approved for a gravity septic system for up to a 4 bedroom home. No trailers allowed which includes single-wides, doublewides, or triplewides. Partially wooded lot. Great location, convenient to Easton.

To get the absorption rate, for the following counties, take the number of homes sold since 1/1/09 and divide that number by the number of days so far this year (103 days as of 4/13/09).  This will give you an average number of homes sold daily.  Divide that number into the total homes on the market in each county and you will get the "absorption rate" for each county based on current sales for 2009. 

The absorption rates for the counties below are over two years (yes at the rate at which homes are selling now it will take over two years for all the homes on the market to be sold in those counties).  When the absorption rate is high we are in a period known as a Buyer's Market (lots of homes to choose from and no time constraint pressures to buy them).  We are definitely experiencing a Buyer's Market right now.

Absorption rates can be pretty sobering if you are home seller.  Call me or email me and I will explain.

These stats are for Homes in Caroline, Kent, and Queen Anne's County, in MD.

Caroline County, MD - Active (A) Home Listings in all price ranges:  374

Caroline County, MD - Under Contract (UC) Home Listings in all price ranges: 41

Caroline County, MD - SOLD (S) Homes 1/1/09 to Present:  49   

Kent County, MD - A Home Listings in all price ranges:  346

Kent County, MD - UC Home Listings in all price ranges: 28

Kent County, MD - S Homes 1/1/09 to Present:  22

Queen Anne's County, MD - A Home Listings in all price ranges:  > 500 *

Queen Anne's County, MD - UC Home Listings in all price ranges: 64

Queen Anne's County, MD - S Homes 1/1/09 to Present:  63

* Results taken from MRIS multi-list.  Search only goes to 500. This figure is greater than 500.

I know someone whose mother removes crab meat out of Blue Crabs ("picks crabs") for a living.  This woman has been picking crab meat since she was a little girl.  She held her own mother's hand, as a little girl, when her mother walked to the local crabhouse to pick crabs.  Her mother did it until she was in her late 70's.  It's a hard life.  She wakes up at 3 AM, has a slice of toast and a cup of coffee, and waits for a van to pick her up and take her to the local crabhouse where she works until about 10 AM.  There, she picks the meat from hundreds of crabs and puts it into various cans (jumbo lump, backfin, or claw meat). This woman is probably the fastest picker in the crabhouse. She can pick over 30 pounds of meat per day. She also produces some of the finest and cleanest meat (hardly any shells or crab by-products) of the 15 or so women who work alongside her in the picking house. This woman is now 76 years old. This is the only occupation that she has ever had and the only job that she has ever wanted to do. It's a tough life though, standing on a usually wet, concrete, floor in a damp and very warm or very cool and drafty atmosphere day-in and day-out, hands and crab meat flying. The pay? $2.50 per pound. After a long season, ending in late November, she and her coworkers look forward to the winter respite and their seasonal unemployment checks.  Just a couple of weeks to go. 

Who is this lady who picks the meat from the crabs? I am proud to say that this lady is my mother. She has been working for Tideland Seafood, in Wingate, Maryland, for about five years now.  Before that, she worked for 42 years for a local crab company that just closed the doors one day and the owners didn't even call her or others who had worked there for so many years to even let them know that they had closed.  No gold watch, no pension, and not even a"Thank You." Ah, yes, it's a tough life. Living on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and working in the local economy that depends on the Bay is tough. I held my mother's hand, as a little boy, and went to the crab house with her. I will never forget that.

If you ever get a chance, visit one of the local crab houses and see just how fast someone can pick a crab. It will probably surprise you.  Go in the Summer time and, while you're there, buy a couple of pounds of freshly picked meat.  You won't be disappointed!

So now you know who removes the meat from the crabs. It's the hard working people like my mother who do it and who are very proud of doing that for a liviing . . .  and I'm so proud of my hard-working mother and of my eastern shore upbringing and heritage. 

When will home sales pick up again?  Interest rates are still very good. The absorption rate for homes in Caroline County, Maryland, reveals that with 502 homes on the market there is over a 25 month supply of homes to be sold even if no more homes were to come on the market in the next 25 months.  Wow.  Given that there will be additional homes listed in the coming months you obviously get the picture that there is an abundance of homes on the market in Caroline County and thus . . . it's still a Buyer's Market.

Call me or email me if you would to buy or sell a house land or a farm or if you need help with planning for a 1031 exchange (buy or sell).  Mickey Hayward Cell Phone (410) 924-2277 or  Email mickey@sunsetproperties.net

Per MRIS data, in August 2007 there were 28 home sales in Caroline County.  The average sales price was $225,885 and the average Days on Market were 176.  In August 2006, total home sales were 51, the average sales price was 281,704, and average days on market were 138.  This represents a 45.1 % decrease in the number of homes sold, a 19.8 % decrease in the average home sales price, and an average days on market increase of 27.5 %, over a one year period.

Will home prices continue to decline?  My feeling is that as long as the media continues to tout negative real estate stories prices will continue to adjust in the near term.  My opinion is that the media plays a big role in public perception of the real estate market and it may in fact foster a self-fulfilling prophecy about real estate market woes.

The reality is that now seems to be a good time to buy a home.  Mortgage interest rates are still very reasonable and there are so many homes for sale that the market in this area is definitely favorable to Buyers - a "Buyer's Market."  Will interest rates stay low and home prices continue to decrease.  It's anyone's guess.  Why take a chance?  If you see a home that you really like and you can afford to buy it now, why not buy it?

Mickey Hayward is a certified residential specialist (CRS), a graduate of the REALTOR'S© institute (GRI), a Seniors Real Estate Specialist (SRES) and a Maryland and Delaware Real Estate Broker.  His office is located at 110 Market Street, in Denton, Maryland 21629. Websites:  www.mddehomes.com        www.sunsetproperties.net  Maryland and Delaware For Sale By Owner:  www.mddefsbo.com

Also, if you would like to know how many homes SOLD in a given price range in Caroline County, MD, (or in another county), email me and I will do a search for you and email you a personalized response.  If you are interested in a specific price range (how many homes sold in the $300,000 to $400,000 price range for example) I will need to know that.  I need to know as much specific information as you can supply for the data that you are interested in (County, mailing city, acreage range - if not in a town, price range, bedrooms, baths, specific time frame).  An example would be:

How many 3 Bedroom, 2 Bath, homes, on 1 to 3 acres, in the $250,000 to $300,000 price range, SOLD in the Denton area (or Greensboro, Ridgely, etc.) from 3-1-2007 to today?

Also, if you have a comment about the housiing situation in Caroline County, Maryland, please post to this blog.

Email me or call me any time:  Mickey Hayward, mickey@sunsetproperties.net  (410) 924-2277.

Also, if you would like to know how many homes SOLD in a given price range in Caroline County, MD, (or in another county), email me and I will do a search for you and email you a personalized response.  If you are interested in a specific price range (how many homes sold in the $300,000 to $400,000 price range for example) I will need to know that.  I need to know as much specific information as you can supply for the data that you are interested in (County, mailing city, acreage range - if not in a town, price range, bedrooms, baths, specific time frame).  An example would be:

How many 3 Bedroom, 2 Bath, homes, on 1 to 3 acres, in the $250,000 to $300,000 price range, SOLD in the Denton area (or Greensboro, Ridgely, etc.) from 3-1-2007 to today?

Email me or call me any time:  Mickey Hayward, mickey@sunsetproperties.net  (410) 924-2277.