As home sales drop across the nation, Lowndes County homeowners are cutting their prices to stay competitive.
The average asking price for a Lowndes County home dropped by about $10,000, or 6.4 percent, from $157,000 the third quarter of 2009 to $147,000 to the same period in 2010.
What that means, said Century 21 Realtor Andy Kalinowski, is that “sellers are getting the message” that the market is full of savvy buyers looking for discounts.
“Sellers have realized that buyers are not going to pay 2006 and 2007 prices in 2010,” he said.
“If someone wants to sell a house,” he continued, “they”re going to have to work with the buyers – the people with the money.”
After putting up his one-story New Hope home for $114,500, 12-year resident Scott Tilley said he”s more optimistic about finding another house than selling his 1,475 square foot house.
“I feel good about (buying),” he said. “There seems to be a lot of houses on the market right now.”
About half a dozen people have looked at the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house since he and his wife, Rita, put it on the market in late summer, Tilley said.
Although they have not gone down on their asking price, Tilley said that could change if they go another three months without an offer.
The average drop in home prices locally is also seen, to a lesser extent, nationally.
The national median existing single-family home price in the third quarter was down only 0.2 percent, from $178,200 in 2010 to $177,900 in 2009, according to a new study by the National Association of Realtors.
While home prices are down slightly, sales fell dramatically, as was expected after the homebuyer”s tax credit expired in April.
In Lowndes County, third-quarter home sales suffered a 27 percent decrease from 2009, above the national trend, according to the NAR study, of 25.3 percent for sales of single-family homes and condos.
In the third quarter, Realtors sold 85 houses in Lowndes County, down from 117 houses in 2009, Kalinowski said.
Final sales prices also dropped 7.5 percent in third quarter, from $147,000 in 2009 to $136,000 in 2010.
“No matter what people”s perceptions are (of the market), people are still buying and selling houses,” he said.
Nationally, there have been about 3.79 million existing home sales so far this year, up slightly from 3.77 million for the same period in 2009, the NAR study shows.
Sales in the fourth quarter may drop further, driving down home prices, as the market levels back out, Kalinowski said.
“A lot of people who were going to buy a house just moved their purchase up a bit,” he added.
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