HomeGain survey: Agents opine on local prices
Zillow asked homeowners to weigh in on their property values, as I noted last week. A new survey from real estate site HomeGain gets Realtors' opinions about prices.
You can find the national results here. HomeGain provided me with Maryland data, which suggests that opinions about home values are continuing to split down the middle -- sellers on one side, buyers on the other. (Of the 1,150 agents surveyed nationally, 26 were from Maryland.)
Eight in 10 Maryland Realtors polled say their homeowner clients lost value in the last year, but those clients are more optimistic about prices than the agents. Two-thirds of Realtors surveyed say the average client thinks his home is worth more than the recommended listing price. (A sizable number of agents report that the average client believes his home is worth 10 to 20 percent more.)
Two-thirds of agents say their buyer clients, meanwhile, think listing prices are too high. The most popular choice -- chosen by 45 percent of those surveyed -- is "overpriced by less than 10 percent."
That split is after a number of agents have convinced sellers to list at a price that's lower than what the owners thought their homes were worth.
Strip away all the economic issues -- income vs. prices, recession, credit crunch -- and this difference of opinion between would-be buyers and sellers seems a key explanation for why the number of Maryland home sales is still dropping.
The Maryland agents surveyed by HomeGain were themselves split on what will happen to home values in the next six months. Almost four in 10 expect decreases. Just over four in 10 expect no change. And the rest -- 18 percent -- expect increases.
As for President Obama's stimulus efforts, half of the surveyed Realtors think they've had no effect on home prices. Thirty-four percent believe they've stabilized prices, 13 percent believe they've decreased prices and just 3 percent think they've increased prices.
The poll that went live on this blog over the weekend -- still going, vote now! -- is modeled after HomeGain's question about how buyers view listing prices. Once our poll has been up for a week, I'll show how the results compare.
Here, of course, polltakers are a varied bunch -- buyers, sellers and people (renters and homeowners) who aren't going anywhere. So far, nobody thinks asking prices are low. Even the sellers.
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Comments
Take it from someone that has bought and sold a house within the last 2 weeks. There are alot of properties out there that are very overvalued but I think it is due to when some of the sellers bought their properties and they are listing there properties where they might not take a loss. I bought my house in 2003 and have done a lot of updates over the past 5+ years listed it for what other house were selling for rather then what I wanted and it sold withing 24 hours. But when it came to me buying a property I found out that unless sellers had to move they were mot willing to accept what their house was really worth based on comparable sales. We had a fe negotiations and we finally mad a deal on a house for about 10% less then the asking price.
Posted by: Joe | May 18, 2009 10:02 AM
Some enterprising reporter (hint, hint) should look up the people previously interviewed in the Sun when they offered asking or even higher and compare how those buyers are doing today.
Had those people listened to their curmudgeon uncle they wouldn't have bought a house back then, would probably have had to keep renting, but (I suspect) would be better off today.
Posted by: MrRational | May 18, 2009 7:03 PM
Thanks, Joe, for sharing your experience! Hope the move goes well.
MrRational: Hint, hint, eh? :-)
Right now I'm a mommy blogging on the side. But when I'm back at work, I'll keep that in mind.
Posted by: Jamie Smith Hopkins | May 18, 2009 7:55 PM
As most of your readers probably already appreciate, hearsay from realtors is not a reliable source of information or advice in this market.
Posted by: John | May 20, 2009 12:01 PM
Hi, John -- seems like the basic point the polled agents make (that buyers and sellers really aren't seeing eye to eye on prices) is one that most readers here would agree with.
Posted by: Jamie Smith Hopkins | May 20, 2009 12:25 PM
Jamie:
I award realtors zero points for being masters of the obvious.
Posted by: John | May 21, 2009 11:06 AM
I want to throw this question out there: what would happen to prices if interest rates rose .5%, 1%, 2%, etc? It seems to me that people are looking at prices in a vacuum. Is it realistic to expect interest rates will stay the same throughout 2009 and into 2010?
Posted by: Kevin R | May 22, 2009 12:52 PM