By Krissah Williams
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 26, 2006; R25

Charles County remains one of the less expensive places in the region, but median prices in many of its neighborhoods have jumped well above $300,000.

The median sales price for a home rose 26 percent in 2005 to $298,000 from $237,000 the previous year, according to a Washington Post analysis based on government records of sales of single-family houses and townhouses.

In 15 of the 24 Zip codes in Charles, the median sales price was $300,000 or higher. Those higher prices are being driven by new construction, said Chris Guldi, an agent with Keller Williams in Waldorf.

"You see the more expensive homes on the west side of [Route] 301," Guldi said. "There has been a lot of new construction in the last two to five years and those have become hot properties."

The most popular Zip codes in the county were around Waldorf, which includes 20601, 20602, 20603 and 20604. Those Zip codes accounted for more than half of the houses sold in Charles last year. In 20601, the median house price rose 26 percent to $290,000; the price in 20602 rose 30 percent to $260,000; the price in 20603 rose 24 percent to $320,000; and the price in 20604 rose 18 percent to $307,500.

Waldorf has drawn residents from neighboring Prince George's County in recent years, said LaShone Butler, an agent with Re/Max Specialists in Upper Marlboro. Butler sells homes in both counties and said in recent months that sales in Charles have begun to slow.

Indeed, the number of homes sold in the county decreased from 3,079 in 2004 to 2,878 in 2005.

"I think the high price of gas is what caused people to slow down," Butler said. "I even almost moved to Charles County, but I thought about the traffic and changed my mind."

The county's most expensive Zip code was 20677, which encompasses the historic old town of Port Tobacco. Prices there shot up 40 percent and 30 homes sold for a median sales price of $489,950.

The median sales price in Bryantown, between Waldorf and LaPlata, fell slightly last year to $392,450. Bryantown's Zip code 20617 had been the most expensive part of the county for the past two years. However, only eight home sales were recorded last year, too small a sample from which to draw any conclusions.

Other Zip codes where the median price fell also had very few sales -- in Bel Alton's Zip code 20611, five houses sold for a median price of $250,000, compared with $339,900 in 2004; in Marbury's Zip code 20658, 15 houses sold at a median price of $235,000, compared with $242,500 in 2004.