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November 2025 Housing Stats

by Jacky Mueck Housing Stats 0 0 Comment 18

Maryland Housing Market Out of Balance
as Sales Fall and Choices Narrow

Referencing data from the November 2025 Housing Statistics, Maryland REALTORS^® calls for reform as Lock-in effect strains housing market.

ANNAPOLIS, MD — December 16, 2025 — Home sales in Maryland fell 12.9 percent in November, with 4,769 homes sold compared to 5,474 a year earlier. The average sales price rose 6.7 percent to $521,146, while the median sales price increased 1.2 percent to $430,000.

This wide gap between the average and median prices points to a “lock-in effect” in the housing market: higher-priced homes are selling, while many moderate- and lower-income households remain sidelined. The lock-in effect occurs when current homeowners stay put, even when they need or want to move, because they cannot find affordable or suitable homes to move into.

Additional indicators reinforce this trend. The number of active listings declined 2.0 percent from last year; homes spent more time on the market (20 days compared to 12 days last year), and new listings fell 18.9 percent. Taken together, it signals a market with limited mobility and few choices for buyers.

“When the average price is growing more than five times faster than the median price, it shows that Maryland’s housing market is increasingly serving only the top end,” said Denise Lewis, 2026 President of Maryland REALTORS^®. “Families across the state need attainable options. We encourage the General Assembly to consider practical reforms that have worked elsewhere to help expand housing opportunity.”

In September 2025, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University published a “menu of options” for states and local governments to improve housing opportunity and affordability.

“Maryland’s home prices are among the slowest growing in the nation since 2005, and yet those prices remain higher than in any bordering state,” said Salim Furth, Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center. “There is clearly room to make it easier, cheaper, and less uncertain to build homes in the Old-Line State.”