"The buyers are out there. Open houses overall showed impressive
activity for the Labor Day weekend. In spite of this activity buyers
are still taking their time in making offers. However, buyers do understand
value and when they see the well priced and presented home they will
move quickly.
"The good news is that 40% of our offices had multiple offers
with 25% of the offices having multiple offer percentages of greater
than 30%. Price reductions are generating offers, a few are even receiving
multiple offers. We are no longer seeing prices on multiple offers going
over asking price. In some cases these listings are going under list
price.
"Sellers have become more realistic. An expression that is heard
when the market changes is 'sellers tend to be 6 months behind the market
and buyers are 6 months ahead of the market’. We are now at that
point where sellers are now beginning to understand what they need to
do the sell their homes. Experience is a good teacher as a seller found
out in San Francisco. After 3 weeks on the market the seller received
2 offers. They decided to counter the offers over asking price. Both
buyers declined. The listing agent tried to revive the offers, but was
unsuccessful. If the seller had initially accepted one of the offers
their house would have been in escrow.
"As stated in last week’s report inventories in the majority
of counties are beginning to slowly decrease. This is due to increasing
number of expired listings and fewer listings coming on the market.
Seasonally, as fall approaches we normally experience a second wave
of new listings hitting the market. So far we haven’t seen this
surge.
"Seasonally we experience an increase in activity as both buyers
and sellers return from vacations. Buyers would like to make their moves
before the holiday season begins. It is important during this opportunistic
period that sellers understand the need to price properly and invest
in presenting their homes in the best light possible. That means taking
care of any deferred maintenance, staging, and having reports done before
going on the market. This will increase their chances of having a successful
sale.
"Here are the numbers for the week: 6 offices reported increasing
inventories, 18 steady and 5 declining---3 offices showed increasing
sales activity, 21 steady and 5 decreasing."
Avram Goldman
President and COO
Coldwell Banker SF/Bay Area
