Another Sign of a Buyer's Market
This anecdote about a Brooklyn house-hunter from a recent article on Inman News certainly underscores some of the stories that have been popping up here and elsewhere: One of the houses we went to see last week was listed at $599K. I liked it a lot; it had a beautiful kitchen and lots of original…
This anecdote about a Brooklyn house-hunter from a recent article on Inman News certainly underscores some of the stories that have been popping up here and elsewhere:
One of the houses we went to see last week was listed at $599K. I liked it a lot; it had a beautiful kitchen and lots of original detail. To revisit, I had to submit a bid, which I did for $530K. Went to see it again and decided it wasn’t right. To my surprise, we were called two days later to see if we were still interested.
Buyers See New Side [Inman via Housing Bubble 2]
Calling to ask the $530K bidder if they were still interested doesn’t mean much. It certainly doesn’t mean the offer would have been accepted.
This is a top-heavy market. Too many apartments are overpriced and there are too many crappy new condos coming online (see 505 Court Street). The fact that these overpriced places remain on the market should not be a surprise. Nice apartments and townhouses, properly priced, still move quickly. For instance, the Corcoran condos at 11 2nd Place sold out in a couple of hours.
Mortgage interest rates are creeping up a bit. The cost of heating homes is jumping (although for those with $500+k mortgages an extra $100 a month to Keyspan is small potatoes).
Watching so many people loose homes on TV puts a damper on sense of owning as ‘security blanket’.
And of course prices today do seem a bit absurd.
So a slowdown and reductions quite likely. A ‘crash’ would take a bigger jump in rates and real slowdown in economy (which is not completely unlikely if throughout the northeast and midwest this winter working families and fixed income people have to shell out $500-$1000 more than last year to heat their homes).
I sense a slowdown upstate where I have a 2nd home and have recently been negotiating for a ‘trade-up’ weekend place.
Anecdotes are just that, anecdotes.
Here’s mine: I have been looking for a one bedroom in brownstone Brooklyn for a few months now. I can say that the open houses are much slower now. I saw a one bedroom in Park Slope last week for $325,000. I wasn’t even going to put in an offer because I felt it was way too expensive. But the sellers broker, who was very nice, called me three times to ask if I would make an offer, and even told me that they had received no offers yet. So I made an offer for $280,000, and she didn’t even blink. Waiting to hear what the sellers think.
One last thing,
on an earlier story, a poster asked for brownstoner to stop with all the real estate and price talk, and I have to disagree.
I love Brooklyn and all the neighborhoods and people, but to ignore the real estate market right now, would be a shame. Besides, it always leads to the most debate.
Although I think Ben is right about the nature of asking prices, I still think this is a sign of changing times. There are probably still some areas where there are bidding wars over prices, but I think we’re going to see that end. Asking prices will become what they used to be – the price the seller would love to get but probably not what the place will go for and certainly not something that will inspire a bidding war.
Why is everyone so fixated on asking prices? ASKING PRICES MEAN NOTHING.
Had this property been listed at $400k and a bidding war broke out ending with a price of $480k everyone would be talking about how hot the market is since it went for 20% over asking.
Asking prices are just marketing tools, nothing more. We have no idea what the comps for this house are. If similar properties have been selling for $600k and this goes for $530, then there’s something to talk about. The fact that the seller wants to talk to someone who bid below their asking price means absolutely nothing.
And they did not overbid, but gave a lowball offer?
Damn, it must be 1999….
Someone saw a house in Brooklyn with a beautiful kitchen and original detail listed for $599K? Did they have a hard time parking their time machine when they got there?