Sales prices have steadily headed down since January 2007. For the most part, those homes that were listed four, six, eight, 12 months ago were listed too high! Therefore, they missed a window of opportunity to sell their homes. Just as we, as Realtors, buyers, sellers, need to watch the market to "buy" a home, we also need to pay attention to how to price and "sell" a home. Many want to list their homes a bit higher to see what they can get. Not a good idea in this market. I strongly suggest to sellers that they please list at their rock bottom with "maybe" $5,000 for wiggle room. Unfortunately, many think that because their neighbor has his/her listed at a higher price and "isn't as nice" that they too, should begin at that price. It can be a losing battle for a Realtor who tries to explain to his seller that it's much better to list their home at a reasonable market price than at the price they "feel" their home is worth. Sellers and buyers typically buy on an emotional level. That's why they have a Realtor working for them. Realtors are - for the most part - practica, unemotional about the transactionl AND aware of the best price range to list. I typically give a range of $10,000, because, truthfully? In this market, it can be very difficult to tell. Sellers are competing with over 53,500 active listings.
When people call me and ask me when I think the market will level out or get to the bottom, I preface anything I say with: "without my crystal ball," and then give them some of my ideas. I emphasize that I really do not know, but am watching the stats every day.
Today's Business Journal of Phoenix reports that for only the second time in its history and the first time since the early 1990's, the quarterly S&P/Chase-Shiller Home Price Index has fallen into negative territory. As I've mentioned above, Phoenix and our Phoenix Valley is no exception to the trend. The national index showed a 0.7 percent drop from February and a 1.4 percent decline over the past year. Our Phoenix Valley showed a 0.6 percent drop from February and a 3 percent year-to-year decline. "The fall of the national index into negative territory, after more than 15 years of positive annual growth, is a reaffirmation of the pullback in the U.S. residential real estate market," said Robert J. Shiller, chief economist with MarcoMarkets, LLC. On the positive side, the report also shows that since January 2000, Phoenix typical home gained in value by 117 percent. It is because of this astounding gain, that our market is struggling. For complete information, check out the entire article at:
http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2007/05/28/daily24.html?t=printable
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