Price reductions are down
Although up from last month, 20% of current home listings on Trulia.com have experienced at least one price reduction as of April 1, 2010, compared to 27% in April 2009 when the real estate website began tracking price changes. Compared to a year ago, this represents a 26% decline across America.
The real estate industry uses price reduction data as an indicator of market strength as well as buyer negotiation power.
“Signs of stabilization”
“With such a dramatic drop in home price reductions over the past year, we’re beginning to see early signs of stabilization in the housing market on a national level, as well as locally in certain markets,” said Pete Flint, Trulia co-founder and CEO. “As the federal stimulus comes to an end this month, coupled with expected increases in interest rates and foreclosures, the next few months will be very telling for whether the U.S. housing market can be self-sustaining over the longer-term.”
Trulia.com data does not include foreclosures and analyzes all listing data they are provided from brokerages and MLSs and looks to actual city limits rather than MSAs compared to some other real estate indicators.
Taking a look locally
Of the 15 cities Trulia.com began analyzing in 2009, Seattle had the highest percentage increase for price reductions year over year while Las Vegas is seeing less price reductions compared to 2009. Houston saw the largest discounts compared to 2009 while San Francisco and New York saw the lowest discount amounts.
As of April 2010, Trulia.com tracks more than 15 cities and has expanded their list price reduction analysis to 50 cities as seen below. Click to enlarge.
CC Licensed photo courtesy of thetruthabout via Flickr.com.
