NWMLS AREA 530 -- Are Sellers Asking Too Much?

It's finally clear.  Seller's are asking for more, but not getting it......at least in NWMLS AREA 530, East Bellevue.

I assembled a complete study of SOLD residential (not condos) properties for Area 530 by price ranges comparing the 3 month period between January 15 and April 15 for both 2007 and 2008.  Some of my findings confirmed what I was thinking.......and there were some surprises.

Why don't we clear up a little terminology.  OLP = Original List Pirce, LP = List Price (at the time of sale), SP = SOLD price and CDOM = Continuous Days on Market.

Let's see if we can make some sense out of NWMLS Area 530.The first chart is for SOLD inventory $500,000 and under:

< $500,000	2007	2008	Difference
OLP (Original) List Price)	$449,968	$472,345	104.97%
LP    (List Price)	$445,729	$458,738	102.91%
SP   (SOLD PRICE)	$443,559	$443,093	99.89%
SP % LP	99.51%	96.59%
SP % OLP	98.57%	93.80%
Average Sq/Ft	1547	1816	299
Price Sq/Ft	$298.07	$258.14	$39.93
CDOM	56	69	13
Units	51	40	-11

The first thing that we notice is that Sellers got almost the same money for their homes in this price range as they did last year, yet their starting price was about 5% more!  In 2007, the average Seller's starting price was $449,968.  This year they started out with an OLP of $472,345.  At their starting OLP, sellers found themselves  right at 6% away from their eventual sales price.   Buyer's still negotiated another 3.41% after the sellers dropped their prices from the LP at the time. 

In 2008, only one home (102.10%) sold for over list price and 4 homes sold for full price.  The best negotiation in this 2008 group was 86.40% of the LP.  In 2007, 13 homes sold for over LP, and another 11 homes sold right at  the LP.  The best negotiation in 2007 was 92.20% of LP, and one home sold for 114.30% of LP.

Here's another interesting tid bit.  Bigger homes were in the mix.  Sellers needed to throw in an additional 300 square feet to get their deal, and as we can clearly see, the price per square foot was quite a bit less in 2008.

There were 11 more homes closed last year during this period and they sold 13 days quicker on average in 2007.

Conclusions for this price range:  Buyers did the best job negotiating in this lowest price range than any other price range in area 530.  This was a surprise to me.  I expected to see buyers in higher priced home  achieve more in negotiations.  Clearly it took "more home" to get the money as the price per square foot dropped significantly in this price range.  Market times showed just a modest increase.

Price range $501,000-$700,000:

$501,000 - $700,000	2007	2008	Difference
OLP (Original List Price)	$601,033	$632,173	105.18%
LP    (List Price)	$595,167	$608,063	102.16%
SP   (SOLD PRICE)	$593,999	$594,931	100.15%
SP % LP	99.80%	97.84%
SP % OLP	98.82%	94.10%
Average Sq/Ft	2343	2,379	36
Price Sq/Ft	$259.66	$258.11	($1.55)
CDOM	62	123	61
Units	55	42	-13

In this price range, the sellers again tried asking 5% more for their homes than sellers in the same period last year.  Again their starting point was close to 6% away from their eventual sales price.  Buyers were able to negotiate an average of 2.16% from the LP at the time of sale.

Sellers received on average the same as they did last year.  The price per square foot was virtually the same, as well as the eventual average sales price.

13 more units sold in 2007, selling in about half the time.  In 2008, only 2 homes sold for over listing price and 10 homes at LP.  The best negotiation in 2008 was 84.80% of LP.  Last year in 2007, the majority of homes in this price range sold for at LP or higher (31 out of 55).

Conclusions for this price range:  It's fairly easy to see that Sellers were pushing for a 5% price increase, but did not get it.  I always expect the SP % to LP ratio under 3% and in fact it was in this price range.  This was an apples-to-apples price range comparison as the average square feet was virtually identical.  Market time doubled from 62 days to 123 days. 

Tomorrow, we'll look at the price ranges $701,000 to $900,000 and $901,000 to $1,500,000.

Information compliled from, but not verified or published by the NWMLS

By Greg Perry
Eastside Realtor 

Comments

[Jtosha]

Good stuff. Look forward to see more such stats for area 540, 550, 560.

[Greg Perry]

Thanks,
I'll do these studies as I can. They take a lot of time.

Anyone wanting specific information on their neighborhood and price range just needs to send me an email!

[monkey]

i would like to look a Lynnwood statistic. Thank you.