‘Crunch Time’ For The Spring Selling Season
A pair of reports from the northeastern US. Rhode Island, “As the prime season for selling houses belatedly gets under way, more sellers are accepting market realities, and price cuts on properties that have been sitting on the market for months are now common, agents report.”
“‘You can start to see it all of a sudden, the price changes and the new listings,’ said realtor Lynn Corey in East Greenwich. ‘I don’t think sales are up much. People are basically lowering their prices, and a ton of new stuff is coming on the market.’ On Wednesday, there were 5,990 single-family houses listed with the statewide MLS in Rhode Island, Corey said.”
“Phil Tirrell said pricing houses correctly is crucial, and he makes a point of educating sellers who may still have unrealistic expectations. Tirrell said he recently showed one seller a video presentation of the competition, houses in the local market in the same price range, and the seller immediately lowered the asking price by $10,000.”
“(Realtor) Gayle Flaherty also says that in helping sellers price their homes, she points out the prices of very recent sales, because some clients are still fixed on ‘what their neighbor got’ a year or two ago. ‘When they’re listing they just have to be more realistic. You list them close to the price they’re selling at.’”
“‘For sale by owner’ signs are less common now than they were when the housing market was hot and selling a house was an easier proposition. Steven and Jennifer Shaker, of Greenville, have been trying to sell their four-bedroom Cape-style house on their own since mid-April. Jennifer Shaker said they have dropped their asking price, initially $359,900, to $349,900.”
“‘There’s just so much out there right now,’ Jennifer Shaker said. ‘The buyers have a lot to choose from’”
From Massachusetts. “Massachusetts’ housing market has been scorching hot for years, but now experts say it’s cooling off, which could be a benefit for buyers. Barry Cunningham, the president of the North Central Massachusetts Association of Realtors, said the slowdown was inevitable.”
“‘What’s happened is, prices had increased rapidly over the last 10 years,’ he said. ‘That type of increase of price could not continue forever. We’re at a point where the market’s taking a breather. It’s healthy.’”
“A year ago, there were 1,270 properties for sale in North Central Massachusetts, according to Richard Healey. Today, that figure has increased almost 50 percent to 1,808. ‘The general trend is more homes on the market,’ said (realtor) Mark Cavanagh. ‘In Fitchburg, right now, there are 522 properties on the market,’ he said.”
“In April 2006, 47 properties sold in Fitchburg, with an average price of $206,000. In the same month last year, 63 properties sold, with an average price of $231,000, according to Cavanagh.”
“David Wluka, president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, said the current market cooldown is not the same as the bubble burst of the 1980s.”
“‘That happened for a whole bunch of different reasons that are not going on in the market today,’ he said, citing less speculation and more stringent banking standards. ‘It was a very, very different situation. The fundamentals of real estate are very different today.’”
“The question for buyers now is whether to wait and see if prices drop, or to make their move now. Experts say interest rates are a huge factor. ‘The rise in interest rates is going to change the landscape some over the next few months to a year,’ Cunningham said. ‘(Buyers) might be better making (the move) sooner rather than later.’”
“Wluka said sellers need a more realistic view on what their houses can sell for. ‘When there are four or five homes in a neighborhood that are similarly priced, you have to make it stand out,’ he said. ‘There’s resistance. Everyone knows what their neighbors sold their house for three months ago.’”
Here is a new twist from the RI article:
‘I’m just pushing my marketing a little bit more,’ said Gayle Flaherty of Remax Heritage in Barrington. Flaherty planned a ‘twilight tour,’ concurrent open houses at eight properties, held Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. in the East Bay towns of Barrington, Bristol and Portsmouth. She wanted to try a nontraditional time for open houses that might ‘make it more convenient for people,’ Flaherty said, because ‘the weekend weather has been awful’ so far this spring, and many people might want to spend the next sunny weekend having fun or doing long-neglected yard work. There will be appetizers for open-house guests who may be stopping by after work but before dinner. She’s planning anther twilight tour for Wednesday. ‘We’re just trying to take another angle,’ she said.’
People who are in the market to buy a home will go to open houses no matter what the weather or time of week. New potential buyers won’t magically appear once the time of an open house is changed.
Don’t discourage her. I have no interest in buying ah house, but that doesn’t mean I will turn my nose up at free appetizers. There are several properties for sale near me, and I will happily go snarf up appetizers if offered.
You have to be nuts to buy now when you know in Sep/Oct prices will be 15-20% lower. And that much I guarantee you. Once the Summer is over the panic will start.
You don’t have to *be* nuts to enjoy delicious *free* nuts.
“As the prime season for selling houses belatedly gets under way, more sellers are accepting market realities, and price cuts on properties that have been sitting on the market for months are now common,
Who would think of such a Thing, drop the price and market realities.
Spring is over. This is summer, time for BBQs and DisneyWorld. Forget selling a house.
I was at Disney World yesterday, and let me tell you, it was hot as hell. Being a Florida resident, I should have known better. Not only did I sit out in the hot sun, but I sat in long lines!
Oh well… It was fun, but my feet hurt
I believe the official end of spring is June 22nd. These northern markets are probably still comfortable. It’s very nice in northern Arizona this weekend, but definitely summer in Phoenix.
ben,zip code 86401, realtor.com total listings today 1950. inventory going up in the prime sale season here in kingman
If you run Kingman, AZ without the zip, you will come up with a lot more. They added a new zip (86409) a few months ago and a lot of listings are using the correct zips now.
I woke up to a dusting of snow on Sat morning.
“David Wluka, president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, said the current market cooldown is not the same as the bubble burst of the 1980s.”
What?, WHAT?? I spent the last 3 years listening to agents saying “Real Estate never goes down !” There is no bubble” Now they are admitting it is going down, has gone down ,and looks like will be ever further going further. Thank goodness I didn’t buy into their expertice.
It’s really frustrating the spin they are able to take on this…Even the main RE groups websites stopped posting meaningful data now that the tide has turned against them. Business is business I guess ,but too many will now bear the brunt that avoided the insanity.
Tirrell said he recently showed one seller a video presentation of the competition, houses in the local market in the same price range, and the seller immediately lowered the asking price by $10,000.”
That’s it? Show them the video again because I assume that in Rhode Island this amounts to a cut of 5% or less.
I just can’t stand this position the realtors take, that rising rates compel you to buy now. It makes me want to construct a simple spreadsheet, upload it for all to use, which would show where the breakeven point is for rising rates v. amount mortgaged via price reduction. Aren’t realtors required to have even basic math skills? Sheesh.
Banking requirements today are “more stringent” today than in the 1980’s? This guy makes Lereah look like a straight-shooter.
My thought exactly! The entire real estate industry is doing the slippery eel.
An eel is a free swimming, self-supporting creature. Slimy, but respectable. These folks are incompetent parasites who have forgotten the first rule of parasitism: Don’t kill the host.
It is not their fault…it is their stomach that commands them!!!
I couldn’t believe what I was reading (well, actually I can believe it, thats the sad part.). I guess they must have been forcing sheople to take loans in the 80’s cause thats about the only way they could be less stringent than today.
i’m off to sandy eggo for the night. i’ll be sure to pee on 2 or 300 condos on behalf of you’s guys (you know, bears marking their territory kind of thing)
Go to some open houses and lowball people for me, will ya?
I’d appreciate that.
Funny how they talked about the great slowdown in Fitchburg. I lived there when I first moved back to Massachusetts. And let me tell you it is like a mini Detroit. With a dead industrial downtown with schools to match.
There are many older Victorian style homes that are crumbling. The majority turned into apartment houses and such. A number of Boston speculators and people looking for a cheaper commute went and settled there. Big mistake buddy!
If you knew about the crime and inadequate police force not to mention the open drug bazaar you would think twice. The commute whether down the turnpike or on Route# 2 is horrid. Easily taking an hour to one and half hours on a regular day. Don’t forget to throw in snow or accidents and all bets are off.
My own anecdotal evidence is that prices are flat to falling about 3-5 percent so far especially in metro Boston. On the outside areas figure no more than 5-7 percent tops so far. I expect that to change if and when another geopolitcal shock hits roiling the stock market. Or just the “dreaded” trillion dollar plus adjustment in ARM’s will push the panic button.
From what I have been observing there are many “mom and pop” speculators. Trying to hold on or possibly rent the investment. With the renting strategy most of them are in negative territory each month to be sure. But some families can afford that slow bleed at least for a short while. Short while being next spring selling season. And even then the bottom won’t be realized in my humble opinion.
Just 2 cents from a guy who has boots on the ground!
Hectore3 — your final paragraph is spot on — I believe that is exactly how it will play out in the areas where speculation was popular. In the others, ARM re-sets and HELOC costs will get ‘em.
I’ve been to Fitchburg a few times and your observations are spot-on. Some of the other communities West of Fitchburg along route 2 are in even worse shape. It’s sad to see. Most Bostonians I work with have never even been to Fitchburg despite the fact that it’s less than 1.5 hours away. Most have little idea of how rough the economic shape of the rest of the state is.
It couldn’t happen in Boston, they tell me. It’s too nice a place to be. [So nice that it's immune from basic economics, apparently]
Most have little idea of how rough the economic shape of the rest of the state is.
Try the rest of the region.
New England deemed NO. 1 region in the country relative to percentages of opiate abuse and addiction.
You can smell the rot and decay.
Free Meth for All!
I live in semi-rural Washington state west of Seattle & will report on my area which is not like the crazy bubble areas that had doubles & triples. Our prices went up about 50% in the last five years do to the equity nomads mostly from Kalifornia. None of the locals can afford currect prices and you hear mucho about afforadable housing. By luck, I sold out at the top last summer and now rent.
A realitor I know put a neat ad in the paper saying sales were down 37% 1/1/06 through 5/15/06 compared to last year. I had a nice visit with hin today saying how much I appreciated his honesty. I further learned the listings are nearly double last year at this time. Over 60 new homes never lived in are the market with more in the pipeline. This is a record for our smallish town. Prices are down 5 to 10% thus far as sellers are holding on.
Bottom line, even areas not real big in the RE bubble are going to hurt. June and July are the big months for selling in NW Washingto and if things don’t pick up soon, there is going to be big hurt in the local RE industry.
Thanks for that info! This realtor who actually advertised that sales were down–tell him next you see him *I* appreciate his honesty too! The realtors around here are still taking out ads saying “now is the best time” to buy, even as the business section finally starts to slowly admit (very slowly, and mostly not, but sometimes they have soo little else to report!) that RE is crap now. The most recent realtor insider message was some head local broker with RE-One, who says something about how the combination of selection and still-low interest rates means this is perhaps the best time he’s ever seen in his whole career of X many years to “invest in Michigan”. I love that last ploy “to invest in Michigan”, because with the economy tanking it’s sort of a call to good citizenship! Buy a house, save your state!
Which leads me to wonder if it’s just Ann Arbor, or does nobody advertise jobs in the classifieds anymore, because the car-ad section is as fat as ever, the RE is as fat, but the sunday jobs listings are literally not even 2 full pages what with the crossword, the merchandise sales and the sudoku eating up the rest of the paltry “want ads”. Pathetic!
We no longer produce things. Someone said we are now making
a living by selling houses to each other.
What town do you live in Chris?
Sequim, Clallam County
Chris - thanks for the info.
I’m in Whatcom county (NW Washington state - north of Seattle, just south of the Canadian boarder) - inventory is growing, otherwise I don’t know how the market is doing overall.
Total inventory - entire county, all types of properties (sfh, condo, land, commerical..)
01/04/06 1,951
05/27/06 2,897
48% increase. Numbers come from a local RE website.
Here’s the Bellingham price # on market/reductions for the 3 in town zips for May 28: (SFH/condos/multi fam)
98225: 258/55
98226: 529/153
98229: 261/94
The price reductions are beginning en force. They were very low over the winter, compared to Seattle anyway. Lots of new bldgs. coming on the market. Should be seeing substantial reductions by this Fall/winter.
Everything’s still too expensive. B’ham made the lists of overvalued at at least 46%. And it seems like the part of WA that’s been most overbuilt the past couple years. HALF of the homes in 98226 are brand new construction. So it’s got a ways to fall.
DH Horton flooding mailboxes with adverts.
Realtors here have been admitting for a couple months that last winter was the absolute top of the market. (Refreshing!)
Hi Seattle, We have to give credit to the few Realtors that are mostly calling it like it is. They will likely be the survivors in this down turn. As I posted above the equity nomands are the only thing holding our market up & their arrival from Kalifornia is slowing down big time. Must be having trouble cashing out.
I am interested in Whatcom County & have to get busy figuring out the best way to check it out.
I’ve been tracking the Long Island MLS numbers:
03/31/05 15,524
02/19/06 24,691
04/05/06 27,420
05/01/06 29,086
05/11/06 30,089
05/21/06 31,048
05/24/06 31,272
05/27/06 31,489
Does that include kings and queens county? Or just nassau and the other one, (Non NYC).?
I believe it includes Nassau, parts of Queens and all of Suffolk County except for the south fork, places like South Hampton, East Hampton, Hampton Bays, Ammaganset and Montauk. Those places are too high class to be on the MLS.
In any case, the numbers, except for the 05 one, come directly from http://www.realtor.com. Scroll to the bottom of the opening page, click on Long Island, click on Long Island real estate, add up the 4 areas, and presto!
Houses sit on the market for months and months. A few have sold, but the numbers tell all. One nice house went on the market 6 or 7 (8?) months ago for $439. Now it’s a “new” listing going for $383. I would expect that house to be sold soon, as it is “cheap” for this area. Some others have been on for over a year now. Last summer the cheapest house was a 2 bedroom fixer upper- basically a tear down for $375. Now you can get a decent 3/1 or 3/2 for around that price.
Interestingly enough, the longer I rent, the more I like it. Homeownership is a pain in the you know what for the price. Been there, done that. The trick is to find a good rental with a good long term landlord.
How is the market in your neighborhood?
here in sunny sonoma county we eagerly awaiting the october rally,cause it has been a silent spring
“October Rally?” You mean the Fall Maul? Oct ‘06 will be one year after the bubble popped. Near everyplace in the nation will be down/flat y-o-y, every 1/1 ARM will be up 1.75% or more from last year, 2003 buyers of 3/1s will go from 3.6% to near 6.5%. Oct ‘06 is also 60 days before California property taxes are due. Again, it will passed unnoticed at the time. No one is killed falling off the top of a cliff, it’s the stop bottom that matters.
Speed doesn’t kill…
Impact does.
Fed will rise rate to 5.25 in June.
Fall maul. I love it!
I too think the Fall is when all these Wile E. Coyotes finally look down….
Did this post and I just can’t see it?
Read about Why We’re Selling Our House.
“Amazingly, the same dump behind our own sold for $525,000 last fall. Of course, they have a small “bonus” room that we don’t. It’s a $1500 electrified shed, but in today’s world, it’s worth $30,000. And I suppose they don’t have a huge chunk of their kitchen floor missing.
When a couple of realtors we invited over told us we should put our house up for $439,000, my wife and I did a collective “huh?” Had the market completely collapsed?
The media messages have been mixed. On the one hand, new home sales jumped 4.9 percent in April, reports Rismedia. But the supply of homes in Southern California have definitely been rising, reports the Los Angeles Daily News. Price growth also has slowed.”
Yeah it is in another thread.
That blog is an example of the meandering pointless writing that I dislike.
I think if he wants to be a freelance writer he needs to tighten up his writing.
“Prices have slowed”…If I read another article titled: “Homes prices may be cooling” or ” Price increases slow” I am going to puke!! THE MEDIAN PRICE IS DROPPING. Yes, even here in California. Hows about the median price drop of $6,000 from March to April in San Diego. Hows about the median price decline of $10,000 in San Bernardino? Articles are at http://www.realestatedecline.com
….Prices are dropping! There is no “cooling” or “Leveling Off” that is going to happen in California. Its gonna be a crash big-time!
Have you got a few statistically viable zip codes you wish to share that show this “drop” you mention?
http://www.dqnews.com/ZIPLAT.shtm
I was at a friend’s wedding last week in Ft. Lauderdale, FL
I was speaking with an old friend who had become a realtor; he was telling me bad the market had become.
He won’t even return phone calls of people that want to list their condos. His reasoning was, it’s not going to sell anyway, so why bother. He indicated that there is so much supply and nobody is buying. Can this be true?
Well, he seemed to think that the goose had been cooked. I thought I had missed the boat as I had sold my rental properties in January of ‘05 after holding them for 10 years.
I will add one final comment. When I bought those properties, I never had a single month in 10 years that I was not cash flow positive. I know for a fact the gentleman that bought them from me, was cash flow negative. It was a Section 8 condo. It was a basically a big box, with a kitchen. Rents were $1100 a month set by the county (Palm Beach). His taxes were $200/mo and condo dues were $350/mo. His P&I on 150k is $875/mo.
Do the math.
Wow, I wonder how many homes are not listed because the realtors don’t want to bother. Too many homes already listed.
This is too funny.
I think your friend is absolutely right about the market down here. Incidentally, here in Palm Beach County, a good friend of mine who lives in CA came to visit. We went out for drinks with his family, and his mom who is an agent in the area said it’s dead. Literally dead. She joked that when the door opens, they all look up expectantly to see if it’s finally a buyer — but usually, it’s just someone coming back from lunch.
Had a few snocktails at a friends roofdeck in the South End in Boston. Both Husband and wife are in the real estate business. They bought a loft apartment 6 years ago taking a huge chance on Harrison Ave taking off and did very well. Many loft condos going up in this area. The wife really drinks the RE Kool-Aid and insists RE never goes down. So I asked them how the market is doing now. They said the building they live in has about a dozen or so units left to sell. Most are under agreement but some had backed out. (in my Columbo line of questioning) I asked “Gee, how come they backed out? They replied, because they were speculators and they didn’t see making the ROI. So I asked, “Why not, real estate I thought only goes up?” snicker….
Then they proceeded to tell me there’s some firesales going on in a another building because the units are just not selling…and oh by the way you could probably get a great deal? I replied, “Gee, why would I want to try to catch a falling knife?”
Bwuaaahhhhhaaahaaahaaa
I guess if you tell yourself a lie enough times you begin to believe it (i.e. Alan Greenspan, David Learah and the rest of the usual suspects)
This is the Original RI article’s question and some reader feedback. Wow! Sounds just like this blog!!
There are a lot of homes on the market right now. Prospective homebuyers, what are you looking for? What can sellers do to encourage you to seriously consider buying their homes?
17 Total Votes
Note: This poll is an informal survey of visitors to projo.com. It should not be considered statistically valid. Comments are reviewed by projo.com staff before publication. We reserve the right to edit or delete comments. We are not responsible for opinions expressed.
Post your comment
Here’s what other people are saying:
May 28, 2006 07:13 p.m.
Sadly there is nothing they can do. I earn a mere 38,000 a year. Given out of control rents, insurance and fuel costs - it is all but impossable to save up for a down payment or make monthly mortgage payments on a property more then 100,000 and good luck trying to find something that is more then a shed for 100 thousand or less these days.
May 28, 2006 03:26 p.m.
Maintain their home in outstanding condition. Price their home close to tax assessor listed, market value.
May 28, 2006 09:45 a.m.
Reaktors have a way of “fishing ” for listings which means they hook sellers by promsing them higher prices than the home will get. Then it languishes on the market, and meanwhile, others put thier house up at inflated prices bc of that comp. DO you know houses in RI have meadian listings prices 20-50% HIGHER than the median selling price? It makes no sense. REALTORS, if you want to get the buyers back, stop lying to us and tell the sellers to suck it up. 160k house 2 years ago is worth 160k today… not 250k. The greed has to stop bc there are no more fools to buy in. LET THE PRICES FALL TO THE HISTORIC NORM. Its happening in CALI, Its happening in BOSTON, and you know what, its happening here.
May 27, 2006 08:11 a.m.
Sellers can start by driving up to their $300,000 outdated home they paid $185,000 for 3 yrs. ago, walk through the front door and decide if they put down $50,000, take a $250,000 mortgage plus $4,000 in taxes (plus $200/mo. if it’s a condo) and then decide how to afford it in a state where 40,000 people leave via Rt. 95 South every year and never come back — just whooooo and where is their uneducated buyer coming from. Mars?
May 26, 2006 03:27 p.m.
Watch House Hunters and see what the real world is paying. You think there getting alot here? Check some of these locations and the houses they wish they had.
May 25, 2006 02:16 p.m.
You can tell the market is overpriced just by driving down the streets of lil Rhody and seeing all the real estate signs that have been there for months. There should be a lot of movement not this stagnation. Prices are going to have to drop to move some of them.
May 25, 2006 09:54 a.m.
When the coming depression comes, you are going to see housing prices drop like a rock back to levels where they should be.
May 25, 2006 09:37 a.m.
The market is NOT overpriced considering what is happening in Boston. 2 bed, 1 bath, 950sf is 850K, rent for the same is running 2K-4K a month! The people coming from Boston are driving the market. Yes, compared to Iowa, the homes are more costly, but then again you don’t have to worry 4 months a year about a Twister carrying your home away. Buyers… Sorry but if you want a home you will have to give up some other things. They are not making any more land. And West Greenwich which has a lot of open spaces for homes just put the brakes on development in that town by buying 400 acres and locking it up as a nature reserve. A home in Warwick for under 250k is a good buy, and they are out there. Don’t put your inablity to pay on the home owner, they worked hard for many years to keep that home, paying high taxes and doing improvments. The interest rates are the issue. If the interest rate hits 8-9% it will then really end the market for many people. You need to save and put away at least 10% for a down payment, 20% would be better. And you need another 5% to cover closing costs. You can do it but you will have to give up a few things. Is it worth it … YOU BET IT IS, because it’s YOURS!
May 25, 2006 08:05 a.m.
Better get prepared for a major price adjustment.
May 24, 2006 10:35 p.m.
RI is full of outdated and very small homes. The rest of the nation’s housing is NOT this crappy. Whats worse, this bubble has everyone believing they live in something special. Wake up, you dont!! The day I ay 250k for a 5 room POS under the airport is the day I move out of state– in other words– I wont do it. Sellers need to lower house prices, to the NORM. Houses historically rise at the rate of inflation not at 20% a year. All this recent “fluff” of rising prices needs to dissapait and correct itself– then, only then, will I consider buying a home in this state.
May 24, 2006 04:38 p.m.
Lower your prices! You don’t live in the mansion you think your house is. Most of the ones we saw are over priced dumps.
May 24, 2006 11:44 a.m.
Get real with their prices!
May 24, 2006 10:41 a.m.
Sellers better start dropping the price of their houses if they want to see anyone be able to buy them. The market is over-priced and needs a serious correction. There is no way that banks and the like are going to loan out the kind of money needed to buy a house to the people who are trying to buy them. There just isn’t enough income in the state to sustain this pricing level.
0, 0000 00:00 a.m.
for starters they can stop being lying thieves.
Does anyone know how the Kenosha, Wisconsin area is doing? I have some inlaws that are buying and I have little knowledge of how that area is doing.
TIA
I bought a condo (Pacific Ranch) one mile from the Huntington Beach (CA) pier in 1987 for $125K. By 1989 similar units were going for $200K. When I sold in 1992 (got married and needed a bigger place) I wanted to list at $200K as that was the best price I had seen in recent memory.
However by then the CA RE market was tanking and someone I trusted was able to explain to me that if I didn’t get out now I would ride to the bottom. Luckily I was able to bring myself to grudingly accept his advice and immediately cut my price to $175K and sold within 3 weeks at $172K. Similar units eventually sold for as low as $140K (1995) so all things considered, I felt lucky to get out when I did.
But I felt like I was really making a compromise because I KNEW that my place was worth $200K. I thought that the moment I sold everything would shoot back up to $200K. Having been that “reluctant seller” I can tell you “optimism based on past performance” is a real barrier to reality and will cause a lot of people to “ride to the bottom”. Thanks to my friend this did not happen to me.
Oh yea, and RE only goes up.
“Steven and Jennifer Shaker, of Greenville, have been trying to sell their four-bedroom Cape-style house on their own since mid-April. Jennifer Shaker said they have dropped their asking price, initially $359,900, to $349,900.”
Clue to the Shakers… hello… that’s a 3% discount. Would you get in your car and drive to Bed, Bath & Beyond for a 3% discount?
David Wluka had best be more careful regarding his comments about the real estate climate here in Massachusetts. We moved to Amherst last August and are renting. I have been watching listings for an entire year now. The inventory has literally exploded upwards and price drops are streaming through daily. I have saved at least 30K by renting instead of buying (and this does not include the commision costs if I had to sell). Even if the market turned around tomorrow (which it will not), it would take over a year just to work off the current inventory. Soon, the people who have to move and the people who have been using their houses as an ATM will have to sell. When that happens, the comps are going to come way down. Also, every month now until August, the yoy median price comparisons will show drops of up to 10-15% (last August was the peak in prices here). As this plays out in the coming months, I would recommend to the Davis Wlukas of the RE industry to keep their mouths shut. Lawsuits will be the next step and they will be the target.
This one’s a classic. I lived around the corner from this place years ago and there is no way this place should sell for anything over 200K. Reduced by 100K my ass. The only person that would even pay the current “reduced” price would be a visitor from Mars.
http://dallas.craigslist.org/rfs/165762013.html
I’m skeptical there are really 3 “full” baths in that house. Looks like an older 1300 sf starter home. Something like that might go for 200k in a good part of Charlotte. And more like 90k if it’s in a hispanic area.