NYT: Can’t Sell Your Home? Maybe It’s Priced Too Low (wealthy doing just fine in US)

[Omaha Steve]

Can’t Sell Your Home? Maybe It’s Priced Too Low

By DAVID LEONHARDT
Published: July 11, 2007

Given that the real estate market is supposed to be in free fall, some strange things have been happening recently in Mill Valley.

It is one of the expensive suburbs of San Francisco just over the Golden Gate Bridge, and much of the housing market there seems to be doing just fine. One three-bedroom house sold for $1.4 million last month without ever being officially put on the market. The seller accepted a pre-emptive bid — $20,000 above the asking price — from somebody who had heard that the house was about to be listed for sale.

“The homes that are having a hard time selling are the average-priced homes,” said Vanessa Justice, a real estate agent with Pacific Union GMAC in the Bay Area, where the median house price is about $750,000. For upper-end homes, she said, “it’s actually pretty crazy right now.”

It has been a while since real estate agents used the word “crazy” in a positive way, but Ms. Justice is onto something here: the high end of the market is surviving the slump much better than any other segment. Even as foreclosures keep rising and overall sales continue to plummet, more expensive homes have staged a bit of a comeback in recent months. They’re spending less time languishing on the market than others, and their prices appear to be holding up better.

FULL story at link.

[Eurobabe]

1. Yep, killing the middle class

Someday those rich fucks will only have gated-communities to protect them from the starving hungry masses. :nopity:

[demgirlamerica]

7. rich

i think its disconcerting that so many democrats in congress "representing" us seem to be multi-millionaires. do they really have any interest or ideas on how to attack poverty and unemployment in our inner cities?

[Eurobabe]

8. in a word, no

unfortunately.

[w4rma]

10. Some do, some don't. Almost none of the Rethugs do, however. (nt)

[Craftsman]

9. More then once I have talked to friends and coworker who are discusted with Bush

and the rethugs, but they do not see the democrats ahve anything to offer them either. To many it seems that what once was the party of the working man and the middle class is now bought and paid for by the same moneyed interests as the rethugs.

[EV_Ares]

2. Just finished reading the Times article & posted it right behind

yours Steve. Deleted it, I felt it worthy of posting as well. Goes to show you who has done great in GWB's economy.

On top of this, look at what is going on in Europe this morning. Some heavy selling because the dam could be breaking. They are concerned about our economy and the sub-prime lending fiasco. A lot of selling going on with businesses doing business in the US.

[wakeme2008]

3. Link :) :) :) nt

[earthlover]

4. Not everywhere in the USA is $750,000 home the median....

For what it is worth, I am a Realtor. What I can report is that higher priced homes are selling slower as a rule. Homes in lower price ranges, faster. We didn't see quite the real estate bubble that some parts of the country did. While it is true that real estate is slower than it has been, at least in these parts, the houses seeing the biggest slow down are in the upper price ranges. Of course, VA is not California!

[DangerDave921]

5. San Fran

I don't know if San Fran is really the one place to pick as a microcosm of the housing market. Their prices are historically out of whack with regular america. Also, there will always be rich people who can afford anything they want.

I'm just glad my family and I are in our house for the long haul and don't have to worry about buying or selling right now.

[crim son]

6. ME is not California either.

I've been trying to unload a high-priced home for over a year. We have thus far dropped our price $120K, from the initial comp to what we're hoping to get. Maybe we could ship this monster over to California and sell it for two million. :eyes: