I had this question posed to me today on my blog by another agent:

'What is considered a sellers market?  There may be a lot of houses selling, but if you price anything low enough, someone will buy it.  That doesn't mean sellers are making a killing does it?  Maybe I am looking at the wrong houses in Vegas, but the several hundred I looked at are priced lower now than they were five years ago.  Is that really making sellers happy, the kind of market they want?'

A seller's market to me is an inventory, supply/demand sort of thingy.  It doesn't mean homes are appreciating 10% a month (although the next several month appreciation reports may be exciting!)

So inventory wise this is why I post graphs! I call less than 4 month's inventory a seller's market, 4-7 month's inventory a stable market and 7-13 month's inventory a buyer's market and 13+ month's inventory a depressed market.

Here is a buyer's market (sorry I was a little graphically challenged back then):

Here is a buyer to stable-transitioning market:

Here is a seller's market:

My answer to the above question is that we could still be a market that has an abundance of inventory with no buyers!  Also, list prices are not equivalent to sale prices these days.  Sale prices are being pushed up.

Here's the beautiful thing for sellers (maybe not price) is that they can pick terms and they control what they accept.  For example, if there are 20 offers on a property with the net overbid list price by 10% and there are all types of offers:  they can cherry pick a cash offer that overbid list price by 8% over that FHA buyer that had the highest bid.

Why would they do that?  Probably because cash closes quicker and with less drama and has less contingencies so the risk factor of waiting another 2 months for a close (yes, FHA is taking about 45-60 days to close,) wouldn't be worth another 2%

They also may not be paying closing costs and buyers are getting few concessions.

So low prices on saleable inventory + multiple offers = prices driven up (slowly this time thanks to HVCC!)

Cash is king and I started doing this report because (I am going out on a limb saying this and am 99% sure) we are going to watch the amount of cash closes rise in the next several months due to market conditions.

Financed buyers are going to have to tread water in sub-markets with more inventory if they want the no haggle price with some concessions.  The odds of closing that short sale are currently about 20:1.

Prices are definitely NOT 'what you see is what you get' in this market currently.  They are being driven up and in many cases financed buyers are left in the dust.

Patience and persistence is what we all need if we really want that house............ (and make sure you are getting a good CMA to make sure you aren't overpaying too much!)