Realtors® confident home prices will stabilize 8/27/2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Nearly 70 percent of Realtors surveyed by HomeGain say home prices will continue to stabilize or increase in the next six months, up slightly from last quarter. According to HomeGain's Home Prices Survey of Realtors®.
According to the survey, 38 percent of homeowners believe that their homes should be listed 10 to 20 percent higher than what their Realtors' recommend, up from 36 percent of homeowners who believed so, but down from 45 percent in the first quarter. Sixty-four percent of homebuyers think that homes are overpriced, unchanged from the second quarter and up from 59 percent of homebuyers who thought homes were overpriced in the first quarter.
Seventy-three percent of home sellers believe that their homes are worth more than their Realtors' recommended listing price, up from 69 percent in the second quarter survey and 71 percent in the first quarter survey.
The survey showed that while home sellers still believe their homes to be worth more than their Realtors say they are, they have tempered their price expectations. In the current survey, only seven percent of homesellers believed their homes were worth 21-30 percent more than their Realtors' recommended price versus 14 percent who so believed in the first quarter survey.
REAL Trends Comment: Along with everyone in the country we want to believe that home prices will stabilize - at some point. And if that means that the decreases will slow there is a fair chance of that happening. But while the markets are signaling that the worst of the unit sales declines are over for now, the overhang of existing inventory, the level of "shadow" inventory held by institutions, the mess in the home valuation rules and the lack of a jumbo loan market all spell continued softness in pricing - despite what optimistic homeowners and Realtors® think.
Seventy-three percent of home sellers believe that their homes are worth more than their Realtors' recommended listing price, up from 69 percent in the second quarter survey and 71 percent in the first quarter survey.
The survey showed that while home sellers still believe their homes to be worth more than their Realtors say they are, they have tempered their price expectations. In the current survey, only seven percent of homesellers believed their homes were worth 21-30 percent more than their Realtors' recommended price versus 14 percent who so believed in the first quarter survey.
REAL Trends Comment: Along with everyone in the country we want to believe that home prices will stabilize - at some point. And if that means that the decreases will slow there is a fair chance of that happening. But while the markets are signaling that the worst of the unit sales declines are over for now, the overhang of existing inventory, the level of "shadow" inventory held by institutions, the mess in the home valuation rules and the lack of a jumbo loan market all spell continued softness in pricing - despite what optimistic homeowners and Realtors® think.
