The study shows that the average price reduction was 10% from the top list price, which equates to a $40,173 price reduction.
Locally, we are seeing that the majority of sellers had to take on one or more price reductions before getting the home sold. In our study of Thurston County home sales for July 2009, we found that 58.9% of sellers needed a price reduction before selling. The average percent price reduction was 20.1%, or $63,298.
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The fact that a greater percentage of local sellers needed price reductions might be explained by the fact that our market’s correction started about 18-24 months after most of the rest of the nation. Sellers outside the northwest have had longer to come to terms with the market changes and the need to reduce prices to match the level of demand.
As high as our local numbers are they are actually improving quite a bit. In January and February, nearly 71% of sellers had to reduce their price before finding a buyer.
Remarkably, even at the peak of our market in the summer of 2006, 41% of sellers needed price reductions before selling, which shows that even in the most active seller’s market we’ve ever seen it was still possible to overprice a home.
Statistics compiled by Coldwell Banker Evergreen Olympic Realty, Inc. from the NWMLS database. Statistics not compiled or published by NWMLS.
