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If We’re Going To Sell, We Should Sell Now

A report from the Press Democrat in California. “Buyers and sellers seem to think Sonoma County home prices finally have peaked, after doubling the past seven years. Sellers are putting more homes on the market this year, thinking prices won’t get better anytime soon, real estate agents and brokers said Monday. The new listings have ballooned the inventory of houses for sale in August to the most since 2011 and meant more choices for wary buyers, who are increasingly cautious about overpaying for a property. It all appears to indicate the county’s housing market is slowing.”

“‘The word out there is we’re starting to go down a little bit,’ Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices agent Ingrid Mathews said of home prices. As a result, buyers are ‘so skeptical.'”

“They bought 471 single-family homes in the county in August, a decline of nearly 10 percent from a year earlier, according to The Press Democrat’s monthly housing report compiled by Pacific Union International senior vice president Rick Laws. Buyers are making fewer offers, too, he said. As a result, more sellers are cutting prices, something rare here in recent years.”

“Fresh home listings have increased 8 percent since the beginning of 2018. The increase has led to the largest inventory of homes on the market since 2011. The month of August ended with 1,138 single-family homes for sale, an increase of 36 percent from a year earlier.”

“Glenn Gephart, general manager of Century 21 NorthBay Alliance in Santa Rosa, said another sign of the market’s slowdown is houses are taking longer to sell. Potential sellers are hearing about more price reductions, agents said, and many of them are wondering whether the pricing downturn will last during the next few years.”

“Pat Provost, another Century 21 owner, said many sellers have concluded, ‘If we’re going to sell, we should sell now.'”

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This Post Has 34 Comments

  2. About bloody time: “As a result, buyers are ‘so skeptical.'”

    This was killer in the article about how the Realtors see it. “Most brokers and agents continue to characterize residential real estate as a seller’s market. They say even with increase of homes listed for sale, the available inventory amounts to slightly more than a two-month supply at the current sales pace. A balanced market would have a supply of three to six months.”

    btw: the new blog seems to be very responsive – thanks

  6. ‘The word out there is we’re starting to go down a little bit”

    Strange, you’ll talk among yourselves about it going down but will tell any and all buyers “Nows the perfect time”!!!!!

  7. Ohhh – the poor babies that will be bailed out again. They are just not being paid enough

    A report from the New York State Comptroller said Monday that the average Wall Street salary rose by 13% in 2017 to $422,500, the highest compensation since 2008. Much of that boost in take-home pay came from bonuses, which rose 17% last year to $184,000 on average, which was also the highest in a decade.

  8. Nice. Are there any pre-existing tricks on a mobile site for seeing only the comments you haven’t read yet?

  11. But Snedaker said agents soon may recommend “pricing slightly below the last price that sold. And sellers are not keen to do that.”

    Hey idiot Snedaker! Dont mess up the comps.

    Buyers, ask yourselves, did income double over the last 7 years? I would be careful not buying at the Bubble Peak. We all know what happened last time.

  14. Nice timing on the upgrade, Ben! A drastic turn in the housing bubble; a new format for the blog. And the Australia 60 Minutes post (“houses could plummet in value by up to 40 per cent in the next 12 months”) was the perfect finale for the old look. Now on to better things!

    Thanks for all the work you do and the awesome community of bubble-watchers you have built here.

    (I’m using an iPad Mini and the site works great on my screen.)

  15. Well, this upgrade is a nice surprise! Looks good on my Android phone. I’ll have to play with this and see how everything works now.

      1. Sorry, we should appreciate more the work that went into a mobile version. But since this would be the obvious place to record what is deemed being less good than before, for future consideration, here goes:

        On a phone, it looks pretty good except a bit too much vertical space separating comments, and the missing familiar soothing yellow :). Yellow background is a big part of the brand, I think :). On a big screen browser, the font is rather small (I adjusted it up two steps), the vertical whitespace is even more notable/inefficient, and of course the nice familiar yellow as well.

        There. Just for whenever the time comes to consider some adjustments. Meanwhile, keeping fingers crossed the wheels will stay on :).

    2. Psychologists have determined that green is the most psychologically soothing color. For the benefit of any stressed-out FBs who show up here, that might be the most appropriate background.

      1. Haha yes that would be one way to help them work through the site or…. go with a more realistic color that brings out the anger, resentment, and fear that the FB is going through. Really give them a heightening experience that allow them to cry, scream, and get those emotions out.

        Site looks great btw

  17. “‘The word out there is we’re starting to go down a little bit,’ Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices agent Ingrid Mathews said of home prices. As a result, buyers are ‘so skeptical.’”

    What Ingrid means to say is that sellers are as nervous as a six-year-old at the Neverland Ranch, while the diminishing pool of buyers – in reality a sacrificial wave of Knife Catchers – is starting to see right through realtor “Now is always the best time to buy!” lies and dissembling, and are beginning to figure out that buying into a bursting housing bubble could put them on the road to ruin.

  18. I am waiting for east Sacramento and midtown homes to tank in prices as well as San Diego prices. Salaries are LOW for most people in Sacramento as most work for the state that pays low salaries and cannot afford 500-800k for a starter home!

    1. its already happening in San Diego. Last month San Diego led the nation in price reductions 25% of listing reduced. I watch Carlsbad specifically and people aggressively reducing asking prices are getting nibbles, those just doing small 10k reductions just sit and sit 2 months. These would have gone over asking back in March. Amazing how quick it changes, wait 2 years and its going to be blood in the streets time just like before and the time before that in the early 90’s.

  20. It’s too late, baby, it’s too late.

    The time to sell was last year. Now it’s time to HODL and hope the housing correction doesn’t dig as deep a hole as the cryptocollapse has thus far.

    1. Looks like the zestimate on that one is $609k and the one year projected zestimate is $622k so it’s a real steal at only $549k! That or as always, the zestimates are totally off when the market shifts (and even when it doesn’t).

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