Almost 30 percent of Dallas-area home sellers have scaled back their asking price at least once in hopes of clinching a sale, according to a new survey.
And on average, Dallas-area sellers trim their listing price by 8 percent, online real estate marketing company Trulia Inc. said Thursday.
The 29 percent of sellers who cut their list prices is “above the national average of 24.6 percent,” said Trulia spokesman Paul Loeffler.
And buyers often pay less than the asking price when they finally close on a home purchase.
Just how much North Texas homes are selling below list price is impossible to tell.
North Texas Real Estate Information Systems, which tracks sales through the real estate agents’ Multiple Listing Service, claims that homes are selling at about 96 percent of list price. But that may not accurately reflect what the original asking price for the home was.
And real estate agents are intentionally hiding the sales prices of many bargain properties, which skews overall estimates, housing industry leaders admit.
While it’s fairly common for home sellers to agree to a discount off their home asking price, the number of homes on the market with “price reduced” and “new price” signs out front has exploded as the economy has slumped.
Overall home sales in North Texas are down about 22 percent this year and fell 14 percent in all of 2008.
Median home sales prices in the D-FW area have dropped by about 10 percent from their peak in 2007, according to MLS reports.
The home list price cuts being reported in some other U.S. markets are bigger than in North Texas, Trulia reports.
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WHO’S CUTTING PRICES? |
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|
Percentage of home sellers who have rolled back their asking prices one or more times and the average drop: |
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|
|
Area |
Sellers dropping prices |
Amount of cut |
|
Jacksonville, Fla. |
39% |
12% |
|
Boston |
35% |
8% |
|
Minneapolis |
33% |
8% |
|
Tucson, Ariz. |
31% |
10% |
|
Chicago |
31% |
9% |
|
New York |
31% |
13% |
|
Austin |
31% |
8% |
|
Seattle |
30% |
8% |
|
Dallas |
29% |
8% |
|
San Francisco |
29% |
12% |
|
Miami |
29% |
15% |
|
Atlanta |
26% |
11% |
|
San Antonio |
23% |
7% |
|
Las Vegas |
20% |
16% |
|
Fort Worth |
19% |
7% |
|
Houston |
18% |
8% |
|
U.S. average |
24.6% |
10.4% |
SOURCE: Trulia
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By STEVE BROWN
The Dallas Morning News
July 10, 2009
