Thursday, June 4, 2009

How does "Days on Market" relate to "Percentage of Selling Price to Asking Price"?

My Buyer, who is seeking an investment property of under $300,000, asked me an interesting question while we were looking at properties together this morning, which I'll get to in a minute. From our previous outings she's narrowed down her choices to five (and will narrow it further before making an offer on one of them).

Her top five (in no particular order), have been on the market for 10, 48,82, 114 and 375 days respectively. The one on the market for 10 days has had no price reductions, while the one on the market for 375 days has been reduced three different times and is currently at 85% of its original asking price.

Her question as she is mulling over her Purchase Offers: To what degree does "Days on Market" relate to "Percentage of Asking Price to Selling Price"?

In our market, residential, 1-4 family homes the current quarterly median List/Sell ratio 94,9%, just 1.3 points off last year's; and the Days on Market is currently 122, up 12 days from last year. Without applying for a grant to do the research myself, has anyone out there recently quantified the data in a market similar to ours?

In researching this, a couple of articles come to light, but nothing substantive:
http://www.move.com/home-finance/real-estate/sellers/setting-price-for-selling-home.aspx
http://www.trulia.com/voices/Market_Conditions/What_percentage_less_than_the_asking_price_are_hou-5126
www.city-data.com/forum/charleston-area/176479-asking-price-vs-sale-price-mt.html

This was not the subject I expected to open with, but in a small city that has arguably the highest percentage of PhDs relative to the general population, my client, her husband (and my husband) just three of them) , it can be the way people think.

In the end, I believe she'll pick the properties that "work" best for her lifestyle, location, the amount of time she foresees having to devote to the properties and the value each represents, and can potentially return.

But is IS undeniably an intriguing question. So any and all input will be appreciated! In the meantime, Catch Cande next time, right here.

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