I talked to a long-time Realtor friend in LV yesterday. She said she made an average of 60K/yr in commissions from the mid-90’s thru 2001, then roughly $180K/yr from 2002 thru 2005, and $60K again in 2006. So far in 2007, total commissions thru March: $8K. Slow doesn’t even begin to describe it. She’s telling all her buyer clients to wait, and her potential listing clients all want 20% more $ than recent comps indicate. Her advice to me was if I wanted to buy something, to only look at REO foreclosures. This Realtor flipped a large number of properties bought in 2003 and sold in 2005, capturing most of the run in LV, so I respect her sense of market conditions.
But like I’ve said before, asking prices, what you see on Realtor.com, do not appear to have come down at all since the peak in early 2006.
Yes, most flippers & sellers are very stubborn to the prices in SD, OC & LA. Some even ask for 20% more from peak. They don’t accept reality of housing slow down and still dream about the old mania. Greed, greed, greed! After the market crashes very hard, they will deeply regard.
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