A housing report from the Baltimore Sun. "Housing sales in the Baltimore area skidded more than 23 percent last month from July 2005 levels, and price appreciation slowed as a shift from a seller's market to a buyer's market took hold. That represented the biggest decline for any month since MRIS began tracking data in the region in March 1999. Sales were down by at least 20 percent in all jurisdictions."

"Prices were reined in by the flood of new listings, housing experts said. While 6,230 additional homes went on the market in June, buyers signed contracts on 3,430 properties, swelling the total number of homes for sale to nearly 16,749."

"Though the market in the Baltimore area has cooled, it remains healthy, said John McClain, a senior fellow at George Mason University. Other areas of the country are starting to see prices deflate. Statistics he compiled for July in the pricier metropolitan Washington area, including five counties in Maryland and 10 counties in Virginia, show the average price down 1.4 percent, compared with July 2005, he said."

"That represented the first drop in average price in that region since the mid-1990s, he said. 'Prices escalated so much over the last four years, there had to come a point where you begin to not have those 20 percent increases each year,' he said. 'People can't afford it.'"

"With more than twice as many homes on the Baltimore market as there were last summer, sellers sought to entice buyers with incentives such as help with closing costs, reduced prices or giveaways. 'There are a lot of houses that are sitting, so you have to get a little more creative,' said Frank Lanham, a real estate agent in Baltimore's Fells Point. 'Everyone is trying to get creative and throwing certain things in to make the sale or to get people to see the property,' Lanham said."

"One of his clients, Danny Garrison, is hoping that throwing in 'cool, lounge-y' furniture, a grill and a bar on the rooftop deck of his Canton rowhouse will help it sell faster. Since the end-of-group house went on the market three months ago, Garrison has cut the price twice and is now offering it for $525,000."

"'We're just trying to do everything we can to differentiate ourselves from all the inventory out there, so we came up with that idea,' said Garrison."

"The shift in the market has emboldened buyers to ask for concessions they would not have dreamed of last summer, when bidding wars erupted and buyers competed by offering well over the asking price. Where last summer's buyer would handle a broken garbage disposal himself, 'this year they want it fixed or repaired,' said Ilene Kessler, an agent in Columbia."

"Ilene Kessler, who is also president elect of the Maryland Association of Realtors, said sellers often still expect to sell homes for a hefty increase over last year's prices. 'Sellers still have not come to the realization that the market has changed,' Kessler said."