February 16, 2006

It's interesting to watch how people price during this meltdown


It's human nature to expect, or "deserve" to get what your neighbor got just a few months ago. Pricing your home at $x just because home Y got $y 6 months ago is irrelevant. It's what the market will bear today. Good god this is basic stuff, isn't it? Isn't it?

Talk to folks who would've loved to sell their Pets.com at $500 a share when it was trading at $5, just because they bought it for $500 or that it was "worth" $500 at one time.

Interesting article from Florida on falling prices, and a tale of two homeowners:

Homeowner #1 (the ignorant one):

Jeanne Dobus of Indian Harbour Beach, who put her home on the market in October, said she has been disappointed so far in the response -- which has been slow.

"I've never seen such a glut of homes for sale in this area," Dobus said, noting the asking price of her four-bedroom home is $349,000.

"People are offering $250,000 to $260,000," Dobus said. "That's just not the right price."

Homeowner #2 (the realistic one):

Kathy Smith had a much-easier time selling her Port St. John home -- asking price $89,900.
Smith, who moved to Fort Pierce, put up a sign in her yard Friday, and had it sold that afternoon.

"It's because of the price," Smith said. "We probably could have asked for more, but we needed to move quickly."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

As we all know, the price a home is worth is the price at which a seller and a buyer can agree to perform the transaction.

If the house isnt selling it is as much the buyer's fault as it is the seller's.

Anonymous said...

Indian Harbor Beach. Port St. John. I'd say $89,000 is a little steep in those areas, if you aren't right on the barrier islands with property facing the Atlantic or Intracostal waterway, you better have bars on your window. That area is one big slum.

Just to get to the beach you have to drive through seedy neighborhoods with gas stations on every corner and a group of thugs standing around the pay phone.

Anonymous said...

the thinker said... "If the house isnt selling it is as much the buyer's fault as it is the seller's."

I'm going to figure that you mean if a buyer can't buy, it's as much his fault as if a seller can't sell, right?

Anonymous said...

Yes that is what I mean.

Anonymous said...

Kathy Smith:

God Bless you for being a concrete thinker who knows how to get things done!