Sellers chop asking prices as housing market slows

midnight armadillo

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Fri Dec-09-05 08:10 PM
Original message

Sellers chop asking prices as housing market slows

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/12/09/sellers_chop_asking_prices_as_housing_market_slows/?p1=MEWell_Pos2

Cuts of up to 20% are now common as analysts see signs of a 'hard landing'

Boston-area homeowners trying to sell their houses are sharply reducing asking prices -- in some cases, by $100,000 or more -- in response to the sudden slowdown in the real estate market.

Demand for single-family homes has declined as prices have risen in recent years and interest rates have begun to climb, causing the number of properties on the market to pile up.

The median price of a single-family home in Massachusetts has dropped 7 percent in the past two months, to $349,000 for sales that closed in October. But reductions in asking prices of 10 percent or 20 percent are now common in both high and moderately priced neighborhoods, according to real estate agents and listings of homes for sale. In Cambridge, price cuts averaged $300,000 in a sampling of a dozen houses listed in the $1.25 million to $4.3 million price range. In suburbs like Tewksbury and Hopkinton, homes originally listed for around $500,000 have been slashed to the low $400,000s.

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Dave Reynolds

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Fri Dec-09-05 08:36 PM
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1. The sounds of a bursting bubble.

People are going to get hosed so badly.

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dweller

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Fri Dec-09-05 09:34 PM
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2. good, now maybe some of the

800k soon-to-be-unemployed can begin to look into building affordable housing for the many, many that are in need of it.

"median price of a single-family home in Massachusetts has dropped 7 percent in the past two months, to $349,000"

turn McMansions into communal dwellings.

dp

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brook

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Fri Dec-09-05 09:44 PM
Response to Original message

3. I am starting to see

"price adjustment" banners on the For Sale signs here on the vastly overpriced Central Coast of California. Previously, it was just that the For Sale signs seemed to be staying up longer. I have doubts that there will ever be such a thing as affordable housing here though. Tourist serving businesses and non-profits don't exactly pay living wages.

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midnight armadillo

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Fri Dec-09-05 10:22 PM
Response to Reply #3

4. I'm seeing 'Price Reduced' signs a lot

I plan on be house-buying in winter of 2009, at which point we will be debt-free (aside from student loans and 1 anticipated car loan) and have a big fat down payment in hand.

With luck the next Depression will be ending by then...housing props up way too much for me to be really pleased at a sudden downturn in prices.

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Neil Lisst

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Fri Dec-09-05 10:42 PM
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5. I have a good friend who closed today.

He bought a house that sold new in 2003 for $790,000.

He paid $660,000. It was one a major corp had bought last year when it moved an executive, which is a standard deal. They sat on it a year, finally got tired of turning down offers and took the best one they could get.

Of course, the same friend just lost about 100K on the sale of his home.

High end houses are definitely selling for less, and there are fewer buyers than houses. High end houses are often the first to go when the real estate market adjusts downward.

I'm convinced we are at the leading edge of a recession, the current Dow average notwithstanding.

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