Looking for a Home Bargin: Watch Price Reductions

On way for home sellers to generate renewed interest in a home that has been on the real estate market for a while is to lower price. Dropping the price strategy works well in retail when you walk the isles of your grocery store or shopping for that must have 60” LCD television, but how good a strategy is it for selling homes.

In the Alameda housing market, homes that institute at least one price reduction is roughly 37 percent since the beginning of the year. That equates to nearly 50-60 homes in today’s market.

Locally we have a wide range of price reductions: The million dollar property, 7 Castlebar Place, has used three price reductions already in an attempt to get the property sold with a list price of $1,899,000 in July is now $1,699,000 a $200,000 reduction. 1221 Sherman saw a $900,000 reduction from $2,488,905 to $1,569,000.

In the more moderate price homes 447 Lincoln, a short sale, has used two price reductions starting at $410,000 and is now $389,000.

If you are looking to buy a home this is a good number to track. The number tells consumers if homes are being priced correctly. A good real estate sales person will try to hit the sweet spot for pricing to maximize the dollars you get for your home and time on market.

In the most recent report from online real estate brokerage ZipRealty the show nationally that list prices for homes are on the rise and there is a decline in price reduction. According to ZipRealty, this data may indicate that the worst is over for national housing market.

According to the Price Reduction report compiled from local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) data in the 27 markets tracked, include:

• The market Median Price Reduction in the San Francisco Bay Area for August was $51,900.
• More than 42 percent of home listings in 27 major markets tracked included at least one price reduction in August 2009 – twelve thousand fewer home listings with discounted prices in those markets compared to July.
• Nationally, Home owners slashed listing prices by an average of $24,494 in August, a decline of 2.01 percent compared to the month prior.
• In August, homeowners within all markets studied reduced list prices on average by 9.59 percent (a 1.67 point decline compared to July)
• Markets with the lowest percentage of price-reduced homes are Denver (31 percent), Los Angeles (35 percent) and San Francisco (37 percent)
  
  For access to all of the data and the full report, click here: http://ziprealty.typepad.com/blog/2009/09/ziprealty-price-reductions-by-metro-august-2009.html
  

September 14 Alameda Inventory Data

. . 9/14/2009 . Total 144 . 94501 114 . 94502 30 . SFR 94 . Condo 30 . Multi-Family 18 . Short Sale 15 . Foreclosure 9 . Price Reductions 50 . High List $1,899,000 . Low List $204,900 .