The present market is definitely a declining market.  Several factors contribute to this: 

• The latest statistics for Frederick County show that the amount of homes listed is 2434, while the number of sales was 163 in the month of September.  That means that there are 15 sellers for every buyer.  While listings are up 5-fold from a few years ago, sales have reduced by half. The increase in inventory alone, forces prices down.
• The rising number of foreclosures is forcing prices down.
• The tightening of loan qualifications is slowing down sales.
• Mostly, the housing costs in this area just couldn’t keep rising at the rate they were.  Eventually, affordability was lost, and the market had to correct itself so affordability could catch up.

So you might be wondering…why would you say this is a good market?  A declining market is a good market for people who want to move up, and who have some equity, and who have kept good credit scores.  Here is an example:

2 or 3 years ago, you might have had a house worth $400,000 and wanted to move up to a $500,000 house.  The difference was $100,000.  This year, when the market has declined about 10%, your house would now be worth $360,000, and the house you want to move up to is now worth $450,000.  Now it’s only a difference of $90,000.  As long as you have enough equity in your current home to put a down payment on the new home, you are actually saving. 

A declining market is typically a good move-up market.