Are You Sure Spring Is Here?

From the NY Times:

A Chill Is in the Air for Sellers

"Many Americans who planned on real estate as their path to wealth are beginning to find that there are limits to how high is up."

"Blame market forces. As higher interest rates dampen demand in cities and suburbs that only a year ago were battlegrounds for fierce bidding wars among numerous buyers, sellers are grudgingly lowering their prices to drum up interest."

"It is a slow leak, to be sure. The most widely used statistic to measure home values, the median home price, shows that once-hot markets like San Mateo, Calif., and Mercer County, N.J., are now registering year-over-year declines. In general, prices are still climbing, but they are doing so far more slowly in cities like Las Vegas and San Diego, which had been lucrative markets for speculators."

"Prices in most of California and the Boston-to-New York corridor could also fall, said Mark Milner, the company's chief risk officer. Its statistics, which lag the current market by about two months, show homes continuing to appreciate, but at a slower rate."

"After open houses for their four-bedroom, two-story ranch house in Lawrenceville, N.J., brought in no offers, Mary Ellen and Anthony Pierrard are telling potential buyers they are willing to negotiate their $420,000 asking price and are even considering enlisting a real estate agent to help them market their home. That's a far cry from the couple's experience selling two houses on their own in Rockland County, N.Y., a few years ago."

"Robin L. McCarthy, a real estate agent who works in nearby Princeton, N.J., said homes were sitting on the market three to four months, when houses sold in as little as a few days a year ago. Houses that would have been the subject of intense bidding wars now sell for slightly less than asking price."

""Buyers are afraid that real estate prices are going to go down, so they are very careful," Ms. McCarthy said. "They don't want to pay too much.""