Yeah the stats are pretty clear on that regardless of whether the secular trend is up or down. That is why I kept posting that I expected to see increased sales this spring. It is simply the seasonal behavior and it fits into the envelope of the overall secular depreciation trend well.
Also increased activity doesn’t always translate to higher prices because it really depends on the psychology of the buyers out there.
The biggest misunderstanding on this site is that Piggs way way way overestimate the reticence of buyers out there to indeed buy. I will say that buyers are as a group becoming much more aware of the power they have, yet they also battle their own impatience to own as well thus in some respect they do feed the sticky mouths of the sellers out there.
Wanttosell is a good example of this. I would imagine that receiving 7 offers in the first few weeks of a listing that are only 10% under asking will indeed indicate a heavy level of interest in the home and most likely result in a buyer actually coming closer to the asking price soon.
Alternately many many sellers also fail to understand that the first couple weeks are THE ABSOLUTE BEST time for a listing. I could not advocate strongly enough that getting a deal done with the first few that come in is pretty important. Passing on them or playing hardball with them is essentially adding risk to the listing.
This also is a very good example of the frustration that I believe some people have posted here about homes that they visited, and even made offers on that were rejected only to see the homes sell months later at offers at or even LESS then the offer they made.
Wanttosell I am not trying to be rude to you. I try not to do that on this post. Your home may or may not sell close to or at your asking price. It will be an interesting call. All I am saying is that you are quite representative of many of the non distressed sellers out there. (I am assuming you are not selling because of financial distress and have a fair amount of equity in your home) Perhaps I am wrong. Deep down you may not believe you feel “entitled” to receive 1.3 based on comps you have been shown. However you are not acknowledging the market conditions. Falling markets fall below comps, it is simple as that. Again, given the high degree of interest in your home, it sounds like you have a fair shot at the 1.3 but I am making that statement based on your description of what is going on, which is not unbiased.
