A Lot to Like, and Maybe to Buy

More Land Is Available, but Building Prospects Are Mixed

Barbara Reeser loves her townhouse in historic Oella, near Baltimore.

Yet she and her partner may buy land in nearby Ellicott City so they can create the house of their dreams.

"We want to build a home exactly the way we want it," Reeser said.

Kelly Schmidt and Shaun Hagglund are also looking at lots in Ellicott City. The couple, who love modern architecture, envision building a house with a Mission-style exterior and an open, modern interior.

For those who want to build their own homes, the land pickings look good these days. Statistics show that the inventory of residential lots for sale in the Washington metropolitan area has increased sharply in recent years.

In a slice of suburban Washington including 12 Maryland and Virginia counties, plus Alexandria, 4,504 lots were listed for sale in the 12 months that ended in April, up from 2,957 in the 12 months ended April 2004, according to data from Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, the area's multiple listing service. Only Calvert County has experienced a drop in the number of lots listed for sale in that time, to 284 from 341.

In some counties, including Frederick, Anne Arundel and Howard, and in the city of Alexandria, the number of listings doubled in the same period. Across the region, real estate agents and appraisers talk of oversupply, lower prices and builders in a slow market hungry for construction projects.

But does building a custom home make sense? Building professionals differ. Often it's a matter of weighing the opportunity to get a good deal on land and contractors in an oversupplied market against the greater patience and risk involved in building your own home instead of buying one that someone else planned.

For some, such as Debbie Jensen, an agent with Fairfax Realty in Herndon, the answer is simple: Just don't build.

"I can't tell you the amount of tears and frustration I've seen," she said. Buyers take on too much risk and are at the mercy of builders, she said.

She recommends instead that her clients buy an existing home, even if it's only 80 percent of what they want. It's much easier to redo an existing house than to start from scratch, she said.

Real estate agents make most of their living selling existing homes, but many, including Jensen, also handle land sales.