New York Times: Home for Sale by Anxious Owner
Mark Zandi, the chief economist of Moody’s Economy.com, estimated that incentives might now be equal to as much as 3 percent of the effective prices of houses across the country, on average. But he and other economists said there was simply no way to know for certain.
“We don’t have any house price indexes that get it right,” said Todd Sinai, an associate professor of real estate at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Depending on the market, executives at the nation’s biggest builders say the giveaways can equal 3 percent to 8 percent of a home’s sale price.