Ziprealty.com has a handy feature -- a clickable box that says "Only show properties with reduced prices." Here's a search on 06/16/2007 of all active properties (residential and land) and the percentage of those that have been reduced in price:
Arlington County
Active Listings: 987
Reduced: 326
33%
Alexandria City
Active Listings: 911
Reduced: 383
42%
Fairfax County
Active Listings: 7,769
Reduced: 3,243
42%
Loudoun County
Active Listings: 3,649
Reduced: 1,616
44%
Prince William County
Active Listings: 5,561
Reduced: 2,608
47%
Fauquier County
Active Listings: 1,041
Reduced: 423
41%
Stafford County
Active Listings: 1,785
Reduced: 819
46%
Warren County
Active Listings: 957
Reduced: 331
35%
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Price Reductions
Posted by Harriet at 12:58 PM
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6 comments:
A third to half of all sellers have reduced their asking prices. Maybe they wouldn't have had to do so (and sit with an unsold property for months and months) if they had priced it right to begin with. Pricing of properties these days is so nutty. Two similar houses can be very divergent in their asking prices. It's almost as if many sellers are delusional about the state of the market. Well, its only a matter of time until prices become rational once again.
It leaves buyers wary, when they know that 40% or more of the houses they're looking at are overpriced when they're first listed.
An agent told me that many sellers use this tactic (although a poor one). They expect to be lowballed, so they price the house higher than comps. It's a poor strategy.
Um, I still don't think we're even close to bottom yet... While there are some things that look more affordable, I still see just as many of these:
This one originally sold for 460k and trying a short sale at 385k... unless my gut is wrong, knock another 100k off it and we'll be close...
I think next fall might be the time to start looking... People will get irrational again with pricing next Spring in the hopes that this year was "the bottom"... Inventory will keep increasing as ARMs keep resetting...
There's a pretty sharp investor guy who I run into now and then in my building at work, he's just signed a 16 month rental lease because he feels we're a long way from bottom too.
The ARM reset situation might expedite things, we'll see.
It's nice to see prices decline. Like most of you, I believe prices will continue to decline for some time. I also hope that the market doesn't return to what is was in the last 7+ years, i.e., bidders running up prices in an effort to have one accepted.
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