The cost of selling a home in today's market
The housing-market slump means sellers are agreeing to cover some or all of buyers' closing costs. A big savings for buyers -- and a big expense for sellers.
Doris Hall-Scheeler, senior vice president at Sage Title Group in Baltimore, sees sellers contributing up to 6 percent of the sales price to buyers in closing-cost assistance. That's $18,000 on a $300,000 house. And it's just part of what homeowners have been paying to move on.
Add taxes and real estate commissions, and sellers can end up forgoing more than 12 percent of their sales price, Hall-Scheeler said.
That's frustrating for folks who were counting on that money to help buy a new home. But it's especially rough for sellers whose home values haven't increased more than 12 percent since they bought.
A lot of people are in that boat: Practically half of the Baltimore-area homeowners who bought during this decade and sold in the first half of 2009.
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