Mighty Bargain Hunter

Nowhere near my kind of buyers’ market

August 10th, 2006 | by mbhunter |

I see signs of folks lowering their selling prices for their houses around here, but those prices are still pretty steep, and most buyers will have a hefty mortgage after the sale.  A 1500+ square foot house as old as I am on about 1/2 acre was listed recently for $235k.  Still in the realm of ridiculous.

I also hear about how this is becoming a buyers’ market through various news articles, magazines, and radio programs.  The speculators and the flippers and even the investors (!) may still have some profit in their houses, but a lot of them are seeing their profits dry up.  So they want to sell.  But does this make it a buyers’ market?  Was the NASDAQ a buyers’ market when it hit 4,500 from its peak of about 5,000?  Granted, hindsight is twenty-twenty but are year-over-year double-digit gains in real estate any different than year-over-year double-digit gains in the stock market?  I don’t really think so.  Just like a 10% dip in stocks from an all-time high is still high, seeing that home sellers are a little more likely to negotiate doesn’t mean that this is a buyers’ market.

I’d like sellers to get more motivated before I’d call it a buyers’ market.  Anytime I hear about one of my friends selling their house, my offer  price seems to be way too low.

Are you in a real estate buyers’ market where you live?

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