Closed sales for Year-To-Date 2014 remain 12% behind last year as we enter into October. The median sales price of an SFR improved a mere .8% to $201,600 while the average closed sales price dropped 4.5% to $239,185. It’s also taking longer to close escrows as the days on market (DOM) continues to increase. The average DOM for short sales increased to 169 days compared to 156 last month.
Overpricing Overview – October
It’s again time to address the overpricing issue head on! The average listing price of an available SFR Equity home is nearly $160,000 more than the average closed sales price. The average listing price of all available equity properties dipped to $411,926 compared to the average listing price of $337,704 for new listings. This market continues to carry a large number of older, very overpriced listings in inventory that do not have a prayer of selling anytime soon.
Current inventory levels increased to 3.5 months for SFR and 3.8 months for condos and townhouses. That means that a seller and listing agent will most likely only get one shot at pricing a new listing correctly. A year or so ago a seller might be tempted to list their home a few thousand dollars high and then “nibble” the price down over the next few days or weeks. Do NOT try that today!! It will most likely result in exposing the home to the correct buyers who will not respond to the over pricing. Then, once the price drops and corrections have been made – those buyers will probably no longer be available as they will have moved on to competing, but properly priced homes. Some communities may be better or worse due to supply and demand – which must be taken into consideration. However, do you really want to play Russian roulette with your listing? Or, is it better to price it to sell from Day One?
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