<p>Wow. Just wow.</p>
deleted for privacy reasons
<p>“So-called “upper bracket” houses rarely sell here now; the absorption rate is nearly 60 months.”</p>
<p>Incredible story. 60 MONTHS!!! Our selling model here in CA is to advertise with a slogan.</p>
<p>“Sell your house in 39 DAYS or no seller side commission”…</p>
<p>Where could that be silpat?</p>
<p>artloverplus,
there are few areas in the country- here on the SF peninsula, Miami, NY, NY,etc- mostly coastal locations- that have seen a recent ncrease in prices and demand. Most of the rest of the country is still dragging along the bottom- prices are no longer falling, but they certainly aren’t rising.</p>
<p>If it takes 5 years to sell a house, is it really worth it to buy that house?</p>
<p>Maybe, renting is a better idea.</p>
<p>I think if it took more than a month, I would freak out. 
</p>
<p>I understand that location matters, but 5 years?</p>
<p>MPM</p>
<p>By accident, I looked up Detroit because some one on CC was selling some thing. Based on Zillow, the homes there are being sold regularly, DOM is around 60~100. Nothing like DOM 1800…</p>
<p>How do you upkeep the house in showing condition for 5 years?AND take a blood bath for 40%? I will be dead by then. In this case, rental is much better than owning.</p>
deleted for privacy reasons
<p>There are builders in others parts of the metro area who have spec houses that have sat empty since 2007. Some have stubbornly stuck to their original list price while others have slowly followed the market down by as much as 40% and they still haven’t sold.</p>
<p>Relo packages aren’t what they used to be. It used to be the case that the employee being moved would get some sort of guarantee about not losing money on his house when he sold it. That’s no longer the case. In my last job, I handled domestic relo ( that is, in the US) and often buyers got stuck with a pretty big loss on their home sale. And we very very rarely made that up to them.</p>
<p>Silpat,</p>
<p>Now you are talking about 2007 prices. a 40% drop is unusual, a 40+++% drop is usual. You cannot stuck with 2007 prices and try in this market. In CA, some areas prices had revert back to 1998 or earlier. We bought our house recently, and the guy paid 20% more in 2000 than what i paid for in 2011. If you are insisting on 2007 prices, you are not a seller. And it will be true, with few exceptions, takes 5 years or more to sell a house.</p>
<p>In more devastated areas, prices changes are more prevalent. A 450K house then could be sold for $150K. That is where flippers come in.</p>
<p>“If you are insisting on 2007 prices, you are not a seller.” I agree! Some of those builders went under and never did sell. One house we looked at in 2006 was priced at $1.3MM. It sold this year for $725K. Meanwhile, the builder paid heavy property taxes because the house wasn’t homesteaded, and had all of the other upkeep expenses.</p>
<p>A diferent market than most areas, very little inventory for sale.</p>
<p>[Slim</a> pickings for Marin homebuyers - Marin Independent Journal](<a href=“http://www.marinij.com/novato/ci_21173651/slim-pickings-marin-homebuyers?source=most_viewed]Slim”>http://www.marinij.com/novato/ci_21173651/slim-pickings-marin-homebuyers?source=most_viewed)</p>
<p>"Almost every day, Joe McNern calls his real estate agent, hoping she has found a Marin County home to show him. And almost every day, he is disappointed.</p>
<p>“The market is really tight,” said McNern, a retired firefighter. “I’ve been trying for a year now, but the pickings are slim.”</p>
<p>With only 677 houses and condos on the market in Marin last month, down 35 percent from 1,047 listings in June 2011, the pickings are slim indeed. The major reasons: fewer foreclosure sales and and “short sales” — by homeowners who owe more than their homes are worth — and more homeowners sitting on the sidelines, waiting for the market to turn."</p>
<p>I met a gentleman yesterday who bought several properties in 2006 and 2007. How the banks could have allowed this is beyond me. Most of them are worth half now what he paid for them. He is giving them all back to the bank. These are homes, raw land, office buildings, strip malls. </p>
<p>On our block, we had three houses for sale: two because of divorces and one because of death of owner. Two of the three are on either side of us. One has a dead tree that is fixing to fall on it, and has been for sale for three years. The other one, the divorce settlement, has been for sale for close to six months. Down the block, the other divorce house, was priced 25 percent less than my divorced neighbors and sold in less than 3 months. It was a great house, with a nice screened porch, nice floor plan, very well maintained. Both divorce houses are well maintained, in fact. Elderly neighbor down the block has family down there cleaning out her house, which they moved her out of as she developed Alzheimer’s. I’m sure a For Sale sign will be forthcoming on that one as well. Another couple has split, with the wife currently living there with her contractor boyfriend. Piles of stuff on the curb every week, as I’m sure a For Sale sign will be up as soon as divorce proceedings get underway. So sad for our neighborhood, where most of us have lived here for 20 years. While we are not the oldest homeowners on the block, we’re not the youngest, either, and it is sad to see the families leaving because of divorce or death.</p>
<p>AND Sold! Thats a wrap!</p>
<p>Congrats, SS. Now what are you going to do?</p>
<p>Congratulations, sistersunnie!!!</p>
<p>Breathe and enjoy it for a bit… comfortably settled in a temp home and things in storage. After I get my youngest off to Grad school I’ll start looking for a place. What a relief!</p>
<p>Sistersunnie- YEAH
In our community the low priced houses are going fast with multiple offers. We know a young couple who have been looking and they have been consistently outbid on everything they have offered on. The last one was a short sale offered at 525,000. It had 6 offers two days after coming on the market. The accepted bid was 40,000 over the listing price. Something that low priced is rare. I walked through the house and it needs a new roof and none of the kitchen appliances work.The realtor was an out of area agent and I don’t think she even tried that hard to market it or it would have had even more offers.
On the higher end. A nearby house was listed at 3.7 million for almost 3 yrs. The owners never reduced their price and we all thought it would never sell. It closed last week at 3.2 million.</p>
<p>We contacted our realtor this morning about seeing two houses, one of which is new today, the other went on the market yesterday. The one from yesterday had three offers and they were to decide at 1pm, but we’re seeing the other one in a few hours. It’s already fenced, so that’s a HUGE bonus for us-- who knew that was such a big deal. I could probably see my office from the front yard, too. Fingers crossed. The last showing we tried to go to, the house had already sold and the buyers were there doing their inspection when we showed up-- the listing agent scheduled four or five people for showings anyway!</p>
<p>I’ve been asking different realtors lately and they said the market in our area really did just dry up right around January/February. There is nowhere near the same number of houses on the market as there was last year, and inventory has been declining more and more. I guess that must be a good sign for the economy even if it’s bad news for me.</p>
<p>So, Emaheevul, how did it go???</p>