"I wish I had priced it lower from the beginning"

From the Wall Street Journal:

Where the Buyers Aren't

As real-estate prices surged across most of America, some of the biggest gains swept coastal resorts. Now there are signs the tide has finally turned.

In Naples, Fla. -- a year ago the fastest-appreciating community in the country -- prices slipped 1% in February, says the Florida Association of Realtors. In Ocean City, N.J., the median price fell 7% in March from a year before, according to an estimate by the Ocean City Board of Realtors. Most other places nationwide have yet to show a fall in median prices, which typically lag a sales slowdown by several months.

Sellers in Ocean City, a densely populated barrier island with a long boardwalk and broad beaches, have cut prices as their properties languish. Bill Beible had listed his four-bedroom, two-bath condominium for $1.35 million last spring. Mr. Beible, a manufacturing executive who bought the place in 2003 for $725,000, admits the price was a bit steep, but other homes like his had sold in a matter of days.

Mr. Beible now says he aimed too high. After getting no takers, he cut the price to $1.25 million. A buyer materialized, but asked for concessions -- and then backed out. When Mr. Beible relisted the condo late last year he dropped the price to $1.195 million, but didn't get any offers. So last week he cut again, to $1.059 million -- down 28% from his initial price. "I wish I had priced it lower from the beginning," he says.
...
Like much of the Jersey Shore, Ocean City was ignored by New York vacation buyers until the early 2000s, when exploding prices in the Hamptons finally persuaded buyers to take a look. Suddenly, prices soared and supply dried up. "Things went through the roof," says Nicholas Marotta, president of the Ocean City Board of Realtors, adding that "we all knew it was going to come to an end."

Both single-family and condominium sales in March fell by two-thirds from a year earlier. Meanwhile, the supply of homes on the market mushroomed. The inventory of single-family homes has more than doubled, while the condo inventory nearly tripled.

Broker Mark Grimes says many sellers are trying to unload properties they bought only two years ago, when prices were rising rapidly. "Now they're going the other way, and they're thinking 'This could get worse,'" he says. Some sellers aren't waiting for that to happen, and are cutting prices drastically -- last week, one of Mr. Grimes's clients dropped his listing 20% to $1.995 million. Others, like respiratory therapist Gabe Dunn, whose three-bedroom furnished condo is on the market for $499,000 -- $110,000 more than he paid last June -- are advertising for summer rentals as a hedge against a softening market. "Sellers have to be flexible," he says. (Emphasis added)

Caveat Emptor!
Grim
(Thanks to everyone that either sent this link or gave me a heads up)