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Let’s use the example of “Anthony Holmes,” cited by the WSJ, who’d bought a house in a suburb of Tampa, Florida, for $550,000 in 2021 after home prices had exploded. He put another $50,000 into it and now has $600,000 in it.
And then he had to move to Virginia for his job.
He put his home on the market in February 2024, expecting an easy sale, maybe a bidding war or whatever, and some easy profit. But nothing. Then he dropped his original asking price five times to $583,900.
“I can’t unload the thing,” Holmes told the WSJ. “In eight months, I’ve had zero offers. No one even showed up to the open houses. Nobody.”
We know why he “can’t unload the thing”: price is too high.
The problem when no one shows up is the listing price, in comparison to similar homes in similar areas. You can sell just about anything if the price is low enough. People are buying homes in Florida, it’s not like no one is buying, but sales have plunged, and the price can no longer be whatever. If no one is interested, the price is too high, it’s as simple as that. And likely by a lot.
The median listing price in September dropped to $437,251, the lowest since February 2022, according to data from Realtor.com. On the way down, it blew right through the normal seasonal high in June 2024 without stopping, and the slide has accelerated since then.
Listing prices are prices that sellers, such as Mr. Holmes, want or that they imagine might work. It’s not the price that buyers have agreed to pay.
https://wolfstreet.com/2024/10/08/florida-housing-market-buckles-listing-prices-sag-to-30-month-low-but-are-still-way-too-high-inventory-piles-up-institutional-investors-turn-into-net-sellers/