One of my friends noticed that some properties she is following, have increased in price too. Neither of us could explain it.

Perhaps it’s a strategys. The sellers think raising the price makes their property more desireable, as in, “Come buy it today before it goes up even more!”

I’m a lot more interested in closed sales than in individual listings. At this point, a listing represents somebody’s dream. Some of those dreams will come true but most of them won’t.

I think it was someone on Piggingtons who provided a very plausible explanation. The seller has been battling with thier agent all summer about the price, and eventually the agent gives in and says ‘OK, if you want $x for this place, lets put it on the market at $x and see what happens’…hence they increase the price to what the seller wants, and, well we can all see the results.

Interesting to note that – of the places I’m tracking in L.A – none have had a price increase since before Labor Day.

Almost as if the behind-the-scenes conversation went …seller: “its not the price I want”….agent:”OK, Labor Day Weekend is the last real selling time of the year (and I can’t handle dealing with your unrealistic expectations any more), so price it at what you think is fair (and we can always reduce it again as Fall turns to Winter..).
Or words to that effect, anyway.

I mean no offense to the sellers here – I’m sure the canny Piggintons have already sold, are renting, or have no airy-fairy expectations of what their property will net in the coming few years.

Still, my own personal perennial “Poster Child of the Great 2006 Housing Bubble” is hanging on in there, with only 32 DOM. Many of you have seen it before…

http://www.realtor.com/Prop/1066446865

Recap: 900 sq ft, lot 1900 sq ft, built 1902, on a busy intersection in West Hollywood.
Original Listing Price on 8/15/06 – $949K
Price Increased on 8/18/06 – $999K

I’d like to nominate this one for the Perrier ‘Comedian of the Year’ Award…;-)

Also, I’d love to have been a fly on the wall during conversations between the seller and thier agent….what on earth was going through the seller’s head when they decided that place was worth a million bucks, and what the seller’s agent was smoking to allow them to do it.
it may be West Hollywood, but to the best of my knowledge, this house is not made of gold bricks.

It could also be that sellers have heard “the median continues to rise” and so in their heads, without checking any numbers, they actually think they can get what they believe their house is worth.

We kept hearing that all summer, so if they’ve missed that the median doesn’t acutally mean anything, they still think it’s a hot market.

Or, maybe they just got a black-bordered mortgage reset notice in the mail and thought, “Jeez, it may take until spring to sell this sucker, and I’m going to owe so much more then so I’d better raise my price now.”

Is anyone else getting sick of the way people that the price of a house should be equal to, or greater than, what they owe on it…. as if getting them out from under should matter as much to the buyer as it does to the seller?