posted by Mike Madison at 10:42 AM /
At Pittsburgh Rare, Casey Smith reports on home sales in Mt. Lebanon during January 2009. 18 homes sold in total. All but 2 sold for less than the listing price.
Labels: real estate
8 Comments:
That seems right - not sure why you used bold for "less" as though it's significant.
The asking price is a starting point and my guess is that most houses sell below asking price. Most of the sales shown sold just below asking. In fact, they sold on average, at ~95% of asking price, which to me indicates the houses were priced properly.
The more interesting bit of information from Casey Smith's piece is that the number of sales was 3 greater than same time last year.
Mary Beth Sklar
List price is always just a number. But I put "less" in bold because it strikes me -- and others who pointed me to this item -- as significant. For many years, Mt. Lebanon has been a market where houses routinely sold for over the listing price -- if they even hit the MLS in the first place. High quality houses in Lebo have long sold in "private" deals, sometimes with brokers or agents involved, sometimes not. Is that changing? I suspect that it is.
Mike -
I'm curious about your statement that houses have historically sold over asking price in Mt. Lebanon. That doesn't jibe with my experience. That must be very recent memory history.
I'm a 47 year resident whose father flipped houses as a second income before it was a fashionable thing to do. We lived in each house until it was finished - I attended 3 different elementary schools in Mt. Lebanon! As a family, we were very in touch with the Mt. Lebanon real estate market and I continue to keep a casual eye on it. I know very few people who have paid sticker price for their houses - those who have seem invariably to be refugees from other inflated housing markets.
Even on my current street, every sale in the last 10 years has come in under asking price. Now, we've often raised our eyebrows because despite the fact they paid "under-asking", we know our new neighbors in actuality OVERPAID for their property.
Perhaps I'm more out of touch than I know?
Mary Beth
It depends on whether your historical frame of reference is "decades of living in Mt. Lebanon," as yours is, or "a decade or somewhat more of living in Mt. Lebanon," as mine is. I've talked to plenty of people who paid more than the list price. It's quite possible that many of those were refugees from higher priced markets, but that doesn't make their deals any less authentic. The market is what the market is.
I suppose I'm both lucky and an idiot because I've sold a house for asking price and I've bought a house for asking price.
I also think that Mike's other point is well-taken - a healthy number of houses (particularly on certain streets or in certain neighborhoods) never see the multi-list and I can't imagine that's because the sellers were receiving less than what they would have listed it for. The reality is that in the past decade or so quality homes that are suited for growing families were snatched up on unannounced deals or at/over the list price. I'm not ready to say that the January sales information is a trend, but I was surprised that only 2 deals in January met that test.
Thanks to Casey Smith for the information. Year over year sales are down (426 sales in 2007 vs. 371 sales in 2008), but what really strikes me is the decline of sales and prices at the higher end of the market. From Apr-Sep homes selling at $250,000 or above are 34% of the sold statistics, while for Oct-Jan they make up 17%. Homes selling over $275,000 are 26% of the Apr-Sep market, and only 8% of the latter one. Homes over $300,000 make up 20.5% of the Apr-Sep numbers, and only 5% of the Oct-Jan sales. Too early to call it a trend, as a true comparison won't be possible until the spring/summer sales numbers come in. But the numbers are worth watching.
Ron Block
I guess I didn't sign my full name yesterday, so my reply wasn't included. sigh...
I suspect the numbers reflect an overdue and welcome market correction. I did a quick run through Lebo's, Peters' and USC's Nov and Dec numbers and they also reveal houses are selling at ~95% of asking price. I threw out an outlier 63% of sticker price sale in USC. So, their data looks similar. October also shows parity. What does it mean?
While this community and broader region did not float to OZ in the housing bubble, we were impacted by it. I watched house prices creep up to sometimes inexplicable levels. My favorite example is a tiny 3 BR, 1.5 bath house with a 1 car detached garage on a heavily trafficked street flipping in one year from $175k to $250k. Yoi!
At this point, I view it as an appropriate price adjustment.
Mary Beth SKLAR
I know people have moved on from this topic, but Casey Smith put up Peters Township's January numbers.
Peters sales averaged 97.1% of asking price. Mt. Lebanon averaged 95.8%. Not much difference. USC's sales are still unknown, but I suspect they'll look similar.
Mary Beth Sklar
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