SDR, you have the experience pricing homes, and I defer to you.
My uninformed gut sense is that sellers focus too much on the sales of comparable homes. Prices have relatively plateaued for two years, now. However, during those two years, there have been important changes in the pool of buyers, none of which are good for sellers: there are fewer buyers, now, given the high home ownership levels; there are fewer buyers, now, given the lack of quick and easy profits to ‘investors’/flippers; there are fewer buyers, now, given that interest rates have been rising these last two years.
Fewer buyers — combined with soon-to-be desperate sellers, burdened by all-time high debt-to-income levels and rising interest rates — makes for a tough selling environment.
High inventory levels/high cancellations/high withdrawals/high expirations are only SYMPTOMS of the root cause, which is fewer buyers with lower wherewithal to pay.
If I was a seller, these are the things that I would take heed of, as I glanced at recent comparable sales.
