Trillion Dollar Bus

The local housing market ended its second full year of the downturn in a worsening slump, with year-over-year sales in December falling 30 percent for the fourth month in a row.

In all, sales in the Baltimore metro area dropped about 20 percent last year, according to a Sun calculation of preliminary numbers from Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. That's a bigger decrease than the region saw in 2006. About 30,000 homes changed hands, the lowest in nine years - which is when MRIS began tracking area sales through the multiple-listing service.

The average price still managed a gain over the previous year, but the increase of nearly 2.5 percent was the smallest on record. With large numbers of unsold homes competing for attention and mortgages harder to come by, economists warn that 2008 could be a year of falling prices here and nationwide even if demand picks up. read more