Realtors Begin ‘Deliberate Price Reduction Strategies’
The Pittsburg Business Times reports on a new trend for realtors. “Looking to head off a sustained dip in the real estate market, some of Pittsburgh’s largest real estate agencies are asking home sellers to do something that will mean less money for them and their agents: reduce their asking prices.”
“‘Ninety-nine percent of the Realtors are doing that right now,’ said Ron Croushore, president of the West Penn Multi-List and the Realtors Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh. ‘Inventory’s beginning to build. There’s..probably 10 percent more listings this year than the same time last year.’”
“In addition to Prudential, executives with Coldwell Banker Pittsburgh and Northwood Realty Services said this week that they, too, have implemented price-reduction strategies. If the market begins to tolerate the reduced prices, there won’t be a need to continue seeking reductions. However, none denied that the local effort to lower prices has been deliberate and is intended to jump-start sluggish sales.”
“(Broker) Tex Weston said high-end properties were having the most difficulty selling, and were most likely to be suggested for a price reduction. ‘If they’re overpriced, hoping for some windfall or that the market is real hot and going to carry them, that’s not happening,’ Weston said.”
“In southwestern Pennsylvania, many sellers have watched prices rise over the past few years and decided to list their homes at the high end of the reasonable range, hoping they can squeeze more out of potential buyers, Croushore said. Homes that could be expected to sell for $70,000 were being listed at $100,000, he said.”
“Now, agents are just trying to bring the market back to reality, Croushore said. ‘We’ve been in a real escalating real estate market,’ Steve Cook, a spokesman for the NAR said. ‘What’s happened is everyone’s prices have been pushing up. A lot of sellers begin to push the upper limit on the price. We want to get sellers listing the price realistically.’”
“Coldwell Banker even has an incentive for agents who get the most reductions in list price, entering them in a raffle for a football autographed by Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward.”
“(Broker) George Hackett said real estate agents should be just like stockbrokers, keeping clients constantly informed as to where the market is going. ‘If they’re priced right, people would be looking at it,’ Hackett said. ‘Maybe it was priced right six months ago, but it’s not priced right now.’”
“Coldwell Banker even has an incentive for agents who get the most reductions in list price, entering them in a raffle for a football autographed by Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward.”
That’s a bizarre incentive. Why not an incentive for having the listing with the fewest days on market till sold?
“Coldwell Banker even has an incentive for agents who get the most reductions in list price, entering them in a raffle for a football autographed by Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward.”
That quote stunned me also…..Please Mr. seller, can you lower your price just a few thousand more so I can beat Jane (another agent in my office) for who gets the football….Amazing….
I guess that means yet another question which must be asked of Realtors is “Are there any additional benefits, bonuses or incentives for which you are eligible when you sell my home (beyond the commission) and if so what are they?
It is getting to the point where you have to interview all professionals to find out what potential kickbacks might be offered when you give them your business. Those incentives may not be inappropriate, but like most incentives of this type, there is plenty of opportunity for abuse and your best interests may very well be consiously or subconsciously placed on the back burner while their interests get the highest consideration as they gently steer you in the direction THEY want you to go, giving you ‘their best professional advice’ ……. yah, FOR THEM!
Come to think of it, it kind of sounds like what the mortgage brokers were doing with the ARM loans, steering unsuspecting people (not all, but some) toward that loan vehicle as being in their best interest (which it wasn’t), while they made money hand over fist….
How’s that for “ethics”. Your realtor may be have side bets on your house price.
How shamefull! Never underestimate the ability of agents and brokers to NOT act in the best interest of their customers. Why not list it for an “appropriate” price from the start? I guess giving a false sense of the houses value helps to get the listing.
On the bright side, at least they are inadvertently helping to reverse the bubble they helped create in the first place.
Same difference (biggest price reduction / shortest time on the market), within the range of random error variation, but certainly ’shortest time on the market’ is a better marketing concept.
Makes sense. Say you’re a realtor. Would you rather fail to sell a $600K home, or succeed in selling it for $475K?
I’m only surprised that this is being reported as a ‘new trend’ — it should have been happening for half a year now.
I agree, however-
Realtor’s are in a pickle when pricing homes for clients. I know of a realtor in Santa Barbara that has lost business in the Golden Years because he has/had a technique of suggesting a price for the home which was a “slam dunk” for a quick sale…
I figure he knows that his commission is pretty much the same (give or take a few thousand $) so if he can convince a seller to list at a slam dunk price- he nets his commish instantly and does not have the outlay of marketing fees that can really add up over the course of 3, 4, or 6 months of marketing a client’s home.
Anyway, he ended up getting a reputation in town for doing so, and the (greedy?) sellers started to boycott and go toward the realtors who would tell them what they want to hear “your home is worth a gazillion dollars…”
This strategy is to tell the seller what they want to hear… get the listing, then when it doesnt sell, talk about reducing the price. This way, they (usually) remain with the listing agent when it sells at the reduced price- and collect the commish.
My point being Renta;
You don’t ask the seller to lower the price so you can win a football….You ask them to lower the price with data that supports that recomendation….They are acting like a bunch of SHUCKSTEERS….No wonder realtors do not get much respect…Games like this…
Looks the fall will be fast and deep.
not to worry according to NAR prices will historically go up this year.
By Robert Schroeder
Last Update: 10:00 AM ET Apr 3, 2006
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Pending home sales fell 0.8% in February, to a level of 117.7, the National Association of Realtors said Monday. Year-over-year, pending home sales are down 5.2%, the group said, indicating that the housing market is stabilizing. NAR’s chief economist said most of the housing market’s cooling has already happened but that the market will be “historically strong” going forward.
The house directly across the street from me, which was grossly overpriced and on the market for 2 months with no activity, has apparently been withdrawn because the realtor sign is down. Another one across the street has been listed by a flipper since Thanksgiving. The realtor’s sign on that one is still flat on the ground after a storm over 2 weeks ago. My friend’s next door neighbor sold their house in the Lakewood area of Dallas to a flipper for what I consider an obscene price. This bozo informed the two of us yesterday that he intends to fix the yard up a bit and then relist it much higher. This is a neighborhood of 40-50 year old houses about 1800 square feet on a creek which looks nice but is loaded with mosquitoes. There must be Californians around because nobody local would be that stupid.
Texaschic, sorry, but i can’t stand the Flippers any longer.
They have been driving me crazy for some 5 years now.
This one sounds like a real winner. But they all think they are very clever, don’t they.
Anyway, it reminded me of a tune……do you remember the tv series: “FLipper”, well, here is the theme song…with comments:
They call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lightning,
(quick to jump on the next listing………….)
No one you see, is smarter than he,
(smarter than the rest of us, we all know the type)
And we know Flipper, lives in a world full of wonder,
(lives in fantasy land)
F……..lying there under, under the sea!
Lying is more appropriate, and definitely “underwater”)
2nd verse, not really appropriate, but included for accuracy:
Everyone loves the king of the sea,
Ever so kind and gentle is he,
Tricks he will do when children appear,
And how they laugh when he’s near!
They call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lightning,
No-one you see, is smarter than he,
And we know Flipper, lives in a world full of wonder,
……….lying there-under, under the sea!
Now you can have that stupid tune running through your head the rest of the day…..everytime you see a flipper coming.
Texas Chick ‘57,
There are still idiot FLIPPERS californicating in Santa Barbara. Was at an open house yesterday where the realtor told me that a home that FINALLY sold for $1.216mil after being on the market forever… was purchased by a flipper and is listed for $1.4mil. The flipper has not begun the remodel yet, but it’s available for basically $200k more than he paid for it. This guy or gal is going to lose his or her shirt. Hope it’s a gal!
Well for your sake, I hope if it is, she has a decent set of Dow Cornings for you to look at.
You’re funny. I’ll take it!
“NAR’s chief economist said most of the housing market’s cooling has already happened”
It’s always good to start Monday morning with a laugh.
Good ‘ol David Lereah! You can always count on the Baghdad Bob of real estate to say something stupid.
NAR’s chief economist said most of the housing market’s cooling has already happened but that the market will be “historically strong” going forward.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!!!!
George Hackett said real estate agents should be just like stockbrokers
In fact, they should be more like ETrade, which charges a constant commission. In the current state of affairs, they are incentivized to have the buyer pay the most possible. Quite stupid.
Well one thing is true. He said “real estate agents should be like stockbrokers”, but they are already like stockbrokers, LOL! Doesn’t everybody know it’s always a good time to buy stocks and it’s always a good time to buy a house?
Well I agree I don’t understand the incentive for agents. What the desired outcome would be is to move inventory. Maybe that can be accomplished by getting sellers to lower their asking prices, maybe not.
That’s why I’ve never had much of a blame the Realtor mentality. Sure the boom has created all manner of new-to-the-game losers, but that includes every aspect.
But Realtor’s really just want to cut the deal. Last year it was hype the price up, now it’s talk the price down. They don’t particularly care about the price in and of itself which is why they are friend to neither buyer or seller.
“Coldwell Banker even has an incentive for agents who get the most reductions in list price, entering them in a raffle for a football autographed by Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward.”
Simply breathtaking! When they are out of a job maybe they can swap the ball for a bowl of soup.
Personally, I’d rather win a Barbie doll.
““Now, agents are just trying to bring the market back to reality, Croushore said. ‘We’ve been in a real escalating real estate market,’ Steve Cook, a spokesman for the NAR said.”
Last year the Realtors were trying to push prices into the stratosphere. Now, they are trying to bring them down. Its pathetic some of the tricks that some of the Realtors employ.
David
Bubble Meter Blog
Recently a realtor in my area posted in a status report that she expects “healthy price appreciation” to continue (I live in a major bubble area). I would like to know - when would a realtor ever recognize UNhealthy price appreciation?!?
This is what Carlsbad Jim has been saying at his web site - asking sellers/agents to lower their prices to cause an orderly descent.
Northern VA Inventory update - 15,056 properties active as of April 3. Last year on April 3, there were 3,238 properties on the market. I sent Ben a photo I took yesterday in Warrenton, VA (an exurb of D.C.) Someone spray painted his (foreclosed) house with huge red words “BB&T You Killed Me” and on the side “Long and Foster”.
Please post the picture, this should be hilarious !!!
Cant wait to see that one!
Got to see this !!!!
After the NAR and realtors insisted that housing prices will go up 4 to 6% this year ,they now are just trying to bring the market “back to reality”.Oh boy they are discovering that the sales go down when you price everyone out of the market . How can buyers or sellers trust them anymore? I say sell by FOR SALE BY OWNER and save money on the commissions and get the realtors out of the loop.
Real Estate office is pushing incentives for the most reductions.
In most states the real estate agent is under duty to get the best possible price the market will bear for a seller . To encourage panic selling is a no no in most Real Estate Boards Code of Ethics.It is one thing to prove to the seller what the market is now , and it is another thing to induce panic selling and than be paid a incentiive for doing it .I’m grossed out. I remember a month ago I mentioned that this was going to be the next chapter in this saga. I’m trying to protect the sellers now .(This doesn’t mean I don’t think prices are way over-priced).
Selling in a panic may BE the best price one can currently get.
Lots of liability exposure if you go it FSBO Wizard, unless, you know exactly what you are doing….
I know , maybe sellers and buyers can hire someone at a cheap price to draw up the contract for them.
Difficult to get anyone to draw up the contract for “Both” parties….Dual Agency exposure…
I know . I just trying to think of ways the seller and buyer can save money because real estate prices are going down .The buyer and seller can hire seperate realtors (at reduced fees) or attorneys to draw up the contract .
Buyers and Sellers can open up escrows using the standard protection forms subject to advisors or attorney review within 10 days , on both sides ( or something like that ).
That can work…
Wouldn’t an attorney who regularly performs real estate transactions be able to provide a contract template?
It doesn’t seem that far-fetched to locate 2 such attorneys (one for the buyer, one for the seller) to facilitate a FSBO transaction.
FSBO-easiest thing I’ve ever done
did 5 pre internet-
Agreed. I have resolved myself to only use FSBO or other discount services (helpusell, etc) in future RE transactions. I am not handing over $30K to a realtor anymore. Why should I, with the excellent search/pricing/research tools available online now?
Join me! Let’s push Realtors into submission–or at least force them to rethink their usury fixed commission levels.
There is one good thing I like about having a realtor in the middle. We made an offer once on a FSBO that ended up going into contract with a broker. Our names were on the contract as an exclusion. We made her an offer that was above the most she could get from her broker after even a well reduced commission. She said no I think because it seemed low compared to the sales price. I think she did the math later. Weeks later she reduced the list price meaning she didn’t even come close to getting what we had offered….tripped up by her own greed, that one.
“Many buyers are taking a “wait and see” attitude. Now that a soft landing can be expected, with interest rates remaining favorable and the excessive pressure to “buy it now” lessening, buyers can relax a little. They do need to understand, however, that prices in the Santa Barbara area are not going to plummet. Therefore excessively low offers are not appropriate. Rather, Buyers should take advantage of the increase in inventory and realize that this is a great time to be buying.”
ABOVE IS A QUOTE FROM SANTA BARBARA REALTOR LORI HOFFMAN, straight off the Realty Times website… posted 3/12/06. She goes on to say that prices are TRENDING UPWARD- even though the sentences she writes her mini INFOMERCIAL states that it is becoming a buyers market.
I THINK LORI SHOULD TAKE SOME LESSONS FROM GEORGE HACKETT:
“(Broker) George Hackett said real estate agents should be just like stockbrokers, keeping clients constantly informed as to where the market is going. ‘If they’re priced right, people would be looking at it,’ Hackett said. ‘Maybe it was priced right six months ago, but it’s not priced right now.’”
if “excessively low” offers are inappropriate, then I guess she’s comfortable getting no offers.
Lori Hoffman has mananged to sums up my complaint against Stealtors (TM).
As the buyer, I decide whether to give an “excessively low offer”. Not Realtors. It doesn’t mean the offer will be accepted, of course. But, the point is that buyers ultimately set the transaction price.
They–believe it or not–have always had this power. Buyers could always have said “no” to insane valuations. Instead buyers have stretched themselves with exotic mortgages to their very limits. Fortunantly, those days are up. Go ahead and try to work the numbers today on a 700K house. Doesn’t matter how you ARM the loan, it is still an unbelievably high price.
I think a (in her opinion) low ball offer, is appropriate given the speculation of the last few years. Even cutting 20% off the prices today is still more than sellers should expect.
Well said E Jamie,
That’s why I have posted Lori Hoffman’s quote on 3 different posts. You’re right on with your comments!
SB BB
A few of you may remember the Arizona Republic interviewing a couple in North Phoenix several weeks ago (maybe two months ago) about how the housing market is slowing down. Someone was able to find the MLS number for this home. I have been tracking it ever since. It’s still for sale and the price keeps coming down:
MLS #: 2434945
Price Reduced: 01/19/06 — $463,000 to $449,000
Price Reduced: 02/05/06 — $449,000 to $434,900
Price Reduced: 03/08/06 — $434,900 to $419,000
Price Reduced: 03/29/06 — $419,000 to $410,000
The girl in my golf league with the house for sale in Cave Creek was in my foursome yesterday. I refrained from talking RE. I could hear her talk about condo conversions to another girl in the group. She has her house listed in the MLS (2488530) I guess the FSBO did not work out the way she thought. She has it listed for 419K but the best part is it is 200sq ft smaller, has a two car garage instead of three and a smaller lot than the house that was featured in the AZ Republic article above. I guess the realator could not talk her into a lower price.
This guy probably thinks he’s being aggressive in lowering his price, but he’s only down 10% from what was probably an absurd price to begin with…
Yes, they should come down more. But I like the strategy of reducing the prices every month (maybe try every two weeks instead, however). More people should be doing this.
pittsburgh is basically a non-bubble and they are even reducing there, that’s not a good omen for the rest of the country.
pitts was rated most affordable- in the top 3
and not a shthole like Cleveland or Buffalo
still down it goes
stymied by mere supply and demand. they might have to get the whole team to sign that ball.
The best news I’ve read today! Go ahead and giggle but santacruzsux boy is gonna be mving to the ‘Burgh this coming fall. Moving back to help take care of aging parents, (just so all you Boomers know that some of your kids still care about you.) Keep those price cuts a coming because a buyer with “CASH” in hand is a coming.
I’m looking for a nice 20 acre farmette in the Butler area for under $150,000 for any realtor hens that may be perusing this blog. %40 down? No problem. Let’s see if I can get that property under $100K by October!
SantaCruz; Your leaving the Beach for Butler…Oh No…
I am sure your parents are going to be happy that you will be close by…I know I would…
LOL! That’s what everyone says to me. What can I say except for that I love my folks, and the people in Western PA are some of the nicest most down to earth people on the planet. I admit Butler isn’t the most glamorous place on earth but it’s better than Titusville and Oil City. Good lord what has happened to those towns? Where did all the meth heads come from?
Okay, this is really too close to the roots–I was born in Oil City. I graduated from Grove City College, moved to Washington, DC and never looked back. Ended up in CA the last 15 years. Even I have to admit, at least in that part of the state, you knew what kind of (normally) good people you were dealing with. Never did figure the CA natives or transplants out. It’s good to be FROM that area! Best wishes to you!
Thanks Pamela, and I hope I didn’t offend with the Oil City comment!
spend some quality time with zillow.com on Pittsburgh and you will see how non-bubble it is. Home’s in my in=law’s neighborhood go for much less than $100K, and its a nice middle class area. If Pittsburgh is overloaded with inventory, that is news. Do flippers even know where P’Burgh is?
Is it the long-awaited downsizing of the seniors? Selling the homestead to move into a planned community? The P’Burghers I know are more sensible about such things than others.
Are you going to take your frock coat, horse, and buggy with you? Next Jan-Feb I will think of you when the wind blows off the lake and the wind chill is minus 30 degrees. Mavericks will seem a million miles and another life time away. ‘It never rains in sunny California.’
You mean the surf spot? That’s not exactly balmy either!
There’s still a lot of room for downward movement in pricing. A house in a new subdivision near my home has had an open house every Saturday for at least 3-4 months.
This weekend they lowered the price $10,000 and it now has a SOLD sign on it.
In my opinion it’s still overpriced, but hey, who doesn’t like shopping a sale?
Builders have been making a killing for the past few years.
In my development office I noticed builders haven’t cared about the cost of permits for a very long time. Now those same builders are
starting to shop for the deals and starting to complain about the ridiculous fees we’ve been charging. I guess they just noticed, even though we’ve been slowly raising them for years. The big question has gone from “How long is it going to take”? to “How much is it going to cost”?
Interesting CRASH; How about forward planning ?? I would be interested in knowing if any projects are “pulled” from the entitlement process in your office…
On another thought, How is our favorite flipper from Sitting pretty doing? Has she sold that POS that she bought, or still holding on?
You mean the one in Palm Springs who hates the bloggers?
I do not think that she hates all blogers. Just straight guys and gals that actually have common sense, and come here before buying an overpriced POS.
Hey Pinch and Wizard…
I think she is too busy working those extra shifts on the two jobs she had to take to cover her expenses on the flips that aren’t panning out.
No, she’s trying to have a kid (shudder) with the SO.
How exactly does that work??? Are they using an anonymous donor with a matching phenotype for the partner? OR are they trying to do artificial insemination a la bovine?
Not only that, but I (and I don’t know why) read one of her posts about how it was normal for women not to want to be bothered with taking care of their own offspring, once born. I have three. Sure the strong desire is there for me to put them in daycare and have fun feeling like one of the girls again, but for now I’ll just be patient. Their home time is over like a flash of lightning, anyway. And if I didn’t have my 16-month-old flushing the toilet for me (while I’m still on it), I don’t know what I’d do.
I actually checked her site the other day and there hadn’t been an update since January. When gently prodded she provided an update in the comments section of one of her posts. Apparently there will be an article in the LA Times on this flip.
http://sittingprettyfinancially.blogspot.com/2006/03/cruisin-lesbians.html
LOL! She has to be the most annoying, self satisfied loon I’ve seen in this whole RE craziness. She’s trying to “rise above” all of the hyenas on her tail. But again, nobody reads her blog anyway except a few grrrls and of course, the rest of us who want to see her take a bath ON the place, not IN the place!
The sitting pretty house in Palm Springs is still on the market, relisted on 1/30/06 (MLS 21238109). Was orignally listed on 10/25/05 for $669K, now listed at $629K. Almost 6 months on the market, what a great FLIP! Must be fun making those mortgage payments on an EMPTY house.
What do 6 months of payments do to her “profits” … I ask, with a $h!tty grin on my face.
I posted this on the previous topic…
Anyone post this yet? Front page, USA Today, April 3rd:
Rising Rates Sink Homeowners
http://www.usatoday.com/
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/housing/2006-04-03-arms-cover-usat_x.htm
“For 45 years, Robert and Lorraine Brown have lived in their ranch-style home in Florissant, Mo. One of their four children was even born there. But for the past eight months, the couple have been locked in a sleep-wrecking race to keep up with their rising mortgage bills. They’ve switched to cheaper phone service, cut back on groceries and sometimes put off ordering medicine.
When they refinanced their home two years ago to pay off some bills, Robert, now 78, was working as a deliveryman. But his employer went out of business last April. Now he and Lorraine, 72, a retired nurse, are both seeking work. The rate on their mortgage has jumped from 7% to 10.5%.”…..
BayQT~
That is really sad. I’d rather rent the rest of my life than end up in that position. I don’t want to work NOW and I am many decades younger than that!
What are they doing refinancing at their age ??? Maybe they should have sold instead ???
Or perhaps a reversed mortgage.
Well, it said that they were having a hard time paying their bills and I guess that was their way to resolve the problem. I feel bad for them. This is really the time for them to kick back. And I wonder how long ago it was that they had started having the money problems? I agree with you….they probably should have sold a long time ago, socked away most of the cash for retirement and lived in a smaller, more manageable place. The problem with that is that most elderly folks don’t want to move, won’t even consider it…it’s too hard for them to make sense of it in their heads….so they stay put and try to work things out.
In this case, it was to their detriment.
BayQT~
After my father passed away, I was amazed at the 18% and 15% CD he left us with. As I renewed at 12% and less I was saddended.
Don’t these 70-somethings have children with brains? Also my parents’ fourth home, but paid off and living within their means, whatever it took. Great life lesson for me.
“There’s..probably 10 percent more listings this year than the same time last year.’”
They should count their blessings. Many areas of the west have a 100%+ increase in listings from last year. 10% increase doesn’t even turn heads these days.
In my neck of the woods, in a single zip code, we went from 290 in december to 385 this morning. That is roughly 33% more in 3 months…. That is in a smal suburban town, that is in the middle of Boston and Providence. That is of course without new construction, or FSBO. I saw a lot, and I mean a lot of FSBO over the weekend, figure around 1 fsbo for 2 RE signs!!!
In a sliding market, a FSBO can work if the seller approaches it correctly….Say the house is worth 400K…Seller reduces the price by 24K (Realtor fee) offers it to the market for 376K…Buyer gets a deal and seller ends up with the same amount if they sold it for 400K with a realtor….1 caveat…Seller & Buyer need to know what they are doing…
Inventory last June in my zip code in South FL (using $100,000 to $500,000 price range, at least 2 bed/2 bath on Realtor.com): 150
Inventory today : 514
Change: 243%
But hey, we’re just having a nice ole’ soft landing here in bubble country!
Who wants to be the last person to buy a house that is 40% over priced?
That is scary that there might be some markets that are that over priced .Time will tell how low some markets have to go .
“some of Pittsburgh’s largest real estate agencies are asking home sellers to do something that will mean less money for them and their agents: reduce their asking prices.”
Ah, I seem to have missed the sacrafice on the part of the Realtors…aaah, you mean that maybe instead of a six percent commission they’ll take two? Yeah, when pigs fly.
No one has mentioned homes @ 70,000???? I have been looking at Pittsburgh just for the heck it and I have seem many interesting places for under that $70,000.They would be 3 times that, where I live.
Wow . . . if prices are ~30% too high in Pittsburgh (an area that I believe could be considered “non-bubbly”), that’s saying a lot.
“Now, agents are just trying to bring the market back to reality, Croushore said. ‘We’ve been in a real escalating real estate market,’ Steve Cook, a spokesman for the NAR said. ‘What’s happened is everyone’s prices have been pushing up. A lot of sellers begin to push the upper limit on the price. We want to get sellers listing the price realistically.’”
This is good news. Realtors were bound to get it eventually. They know that a commission on an overpriced house is ZERO.
I know that a lot of people here have piled on Realtors, but the smart ones will help this bubble deflate quicker rather than later. It’s in their best interest to makes sales, not to keep prices high.
There’s also many tax abatements here, which will end in 2007, IIRC. Example: A million dollar “townhouse” is taxed as if it is worth $9300. Imagine the shock when the taxes increase early net year. It makes no sense to me, but the entire city has real estate abatements for new residential real estate, as we continue to lose residents. I say give tax abatements to business start-ups. People follow the jobs. Everything is backwards here. Crime’s low though. Housing’s cheap (on average). We do have many pockets of overpriced & overbuilt areas.
I live in Pittsburgh (Squirell Hill). It is beautiful here, with a range in price from $100k - $millions. Here’s one - Listed 2004 for $1.2 Million - it has not sold yet http://pittsburghlive.com/x/style/homegarden/openhouse/s_351511.html I live down the street it is a beautiful old home, but Pittsburgh’s shrinking, and the pool of buyers is small here. There’ s also the nasty possibility that taxes will continue to increase, and services will decrease.
santacruzsux - I remember when Butler was the country. I’m 41. I grew up near North Park (Allegheny Co). We still had farms in the swankier suburbs then (60s-80s). Now, it’s all gone. They’ve jammed houses in places they never did before (Pittsburgh is hilly & has many streams, creaks, rivers).
Hi Baldy. I know that the Cranberry/Zelienople area has blown up in the last 10 years off the 79 corridor that’s why I’m looking around in the northeastern part of the county. I was amazed to see what has been built up in Cranberry, it’s just astonishing since I left the ‘Burgh in the early 90’s. Lots of good country up off Oneida Valley road and Evans City area. I’m looking in the Butler area also because of the Allegheny tax levels being through the roof in terms of property taxes.
I grew up off Middle Road in Indiana Township and there have been some huge projects built there. Hell they are taking half of a hillside away for the route 8 widening project in Etna and using the fill for a home development right across the street where I grew up. Starting in the $450,000’s! LOL that’s more than twice what my folks home goes for down the street!
A few weeks ago, the Allegheny Co (home to Pittsburgh) Sherrif said foreclosures here were at “Depression era” level. People keep saying there’s no bubble here, maybe not regionally, but enough neighborhoods especially in the burbs. THEN, there’s the condos. Everywhere there are condos in the city, getting TIFs. RE: taxes - we have the highest paid teachers in the country, adjusted for cost of living. The ave pay for a teacher in the city is $70k, which goes VERY far here, IMO. I live in the nicest neighborhood, and pay 450/mo rent. (basement- I’m cheap). The ave for a 1-bedroom here (my neighborhood) is 600/mo. Pretty reasonable compared to big cities. WHY did I mention teachers? They will get pay raises, and property taxes will go up, at a time of rising interest rates, and a slowing economy. There’s a reason Pittsburgh has a bad labor rep. That’s why, IMO, (besides broke city) Pittsburgh may not be a “bubble” & still be overpriced. They’re cheap here for a reason.
“Now, agents are just trying to bring the market back to reality, Croushore said. ‘We’ve been in a real escalating real estate market,’ Steve Cook, a spokesman for the NAR said. ‘What’s happened is everyone’s prices have been pushing up. A lot of sellers begin to push the upper limit on the price. We want to get sellers listing the price realistically.’”
I can see his point. It is pretty hard for a realtor to make a living with sellers who keep their homes on the market indefinitely at prices well above the market value.