Today’s Wall Street Journal Online, in its Fiscally Fit column, cites Westport as among five communities where real estate prices are softening.
“Westport, Conn., brimming with stately mansions, hardly screams bargain bin, but local real-estate agents say they’re seeing a growing number of ‘just reduced’ home-price listings,” the newspaper said.
“Overly aggressive pricing is one of the reasons, says Patti McGovern, a sales associate at Coldwell Banker/Riverside Shavell in Westport.
“Over the past few years this market has been seeing a 10 percent to 15 percent annual appreciation, and this year we quite didn’t hit that,” McGovern said.
Sellers who put homes up for sale earlier this year have been overly optimistic about getting their asking price. They’ve had to rethink their expectations, the report said.
Dane Risley is one of those sellers. Tne report said the home renovator and his investment partner purchased their $1.270 million ‘fixer-upper’ in Westport in 2004 with an eye toward renovating the home and selling it for a fast profit.
“After spending a year gutting and refurbishing the five-bedroom, 5 �-bath home, they listed it in early 2005 for $2.350 million,” according to the report.
“With no bites, Mr. Risley dropped the home to $2.199 million in mid-May, hoping lure bidders during the spring buying season. Still no dice. This month, he dropped the price again to $2.050 million.”
“We were hoping for a continuation of the feeding frenzy that was out there in the fall,” Risley says.
“The market is still great, but clearly what you’re seeing is a more realistic buyer and the houses are being priced where they should have been priced all along.”
Amen.
WSJ’s story addresses just the “luxury” end of the market. Does anyone care to contribute a view of how the lower to mid range is looking?
In San Diego, CA, prices have been falling since 2004. Many of the borrowers who overpaid have already purchased, and it seems smarter buyers are waiting for more foreclosures to hit the market, just like the crash of the 1990’s. Many homes that sold for $250,000 in 1990, were sold for $130,000 in 1996. I saw the bank sell 2 condo’s for $90,000 each, on the water in 1997. Smart investors have sold their homes for huge profits, and are renting Million dollar properties for $1500 to $2000 a month, and waiting for more air to leak out of the bubble. Many prices are being reduced, but homes are still not selling well. For sale signs are everywhere, but not many are buying. At the begining of summer, there were only 10 reduced prices here, now look at how many are reduced: http://sandiego.craigslist.org/cgi-bin/search?areaID=8&subAreaID=0&query=reduced&cat=rfs&minAsk=min&maxAsk=max
It seems that the spec high end houses are hanging around, at least in my area of Green’s Farms. Bottom line is (I think) that the “entry level” houses which are small in comparison appear to be moving faster. I realize that a 1,500 sq. foot house for $600K is no bargain but property value high and Westport is a great place. Or maybe a 700 sq ft apartment in Manhattan for $600K is a better deal….who knows?