
Elephant graveyard
I’ve got two such sales pending but I thought I’d look at our inventory of houses priced at $4.5 million and above to see what else is still out there. Turns out, there’s a lot. House moving companies should refocus their market efforts to the lower end of the market because most of these owners aren’t going anywhere soon.
We still have 163 houses priced above $4.5, a number essentially unchanged this year because as some shuffle off, new ones creep in. There are certainly large sales occurring: 53 so far this year, but that still leaves a three-year inventory and, as I said, there are plenty more houses ready to hit the market as soon as heir owners (a) run out of severance pay or (b) sense a glimmer of market recovery – my bet’s on “a”.
By quarter, 12 houses in this range sold from Jan-March, 24 in April-June and 17 July – September (0 in July, 12 in August, 5 in September). We’re ten days into October with no contract reported but that will change at least a little bit when my two hit the press and I’m sure there are others waiting for fully executed contracts before publicly acknowledging that a deal’s been made.
But 5 total contracts so far in this, the much-ballyhooed “Fall Market” should serve as a cold bucket of water to the face for all those home owners who’ve resisted lowering their price while waiting for buyers to return from their vacations, get the kids settled in school and head for the market, checkbook in hand. Well they came, they looked, they didn’t buy, and now sellers have until Halloween, maybe mid-November to enjoy this market before the holidays send potential buyers to other pursuits. My advice to stubborn sellers is, if you won’t cut your price, at least upgrade your insulation so that the coming winter’s heating bills won’t hurt so much.