Dennis Norman
Last week I did a post on another blog about a report that had just been released by Trulia indicating that over 25 percent of the homes listed for sale in the U.S. had experienced a price reduction in the 5-month period from June 1 through October 1st and that the average price reduction was about 10 percent.
In an effort to see how things here in St. Louis were stacking up to the national numbers from Trulia, I wanted to assemble the same data, for the same period that Trulia did and see how we compare. I was able to do this with the help of my friends at Mid-American Regional Information Systems (MARIS), the MLS provider for the St. Louis region.
According to the date obtained from Maris, during the period June 1, 2009 through October 1, 2009 30.92 percent of the homes listed for sale in the St. Louis metro-area MLS had price reductions. The average price reduction was 9 percent. So the data shows there were price reductions on about 24 percent more homes in St. Louis during the period than the national average, but the average price reduction here in St. Louis was about 10 percent less than the national average.
Please don’t read more into this data than what it is. It does not necessarily say anything about St. Louis home prices, it really speaks more probably to the mentality of the sellers and real estate agents in St. Louis. These stats could perhaps either an unwillingness on the part of a seller (or listing agent) to price their home accurately for the current market conditions at the outset, or could show that prices are continuing to fall here in St. Louis necessitating sellers to lower their prices to stay priced “in the market”.
The bottom line is, there are plenty of homes for sale out there and, as this data shows, plenty of over-priced listings, so if you really want to sell your home in this market I would suggest pricing it as accurately as possibly from the beginning and don’t overprice it to “test the water”….in my opinion if you do that your house will drown.
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