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Sold price to list price comparison

Charleston real estate sales price to list priceWhat price should you offer on a home listed for sale in the Charleston real estate market if you want your offer to be accepted.

Of course, there are no hard and fast rules and it will always depend on the specific home that you are interested in. Many buyers have a preconceived notion of how much to offer on a home. The problem with that is that doesn't take into account whether the list price already reflects current market conditions.

It really has much more to do with what the actual market value of a house is and that's basically why I like to discuss realistic expectations with buyers that I work with.

If you look to the left, you will see that over the past year, homes have sold for an average of 94.2% of list price. That's an average, some homes have sold for more than list price, other have sold for less. I'm sure a few have sold for that magical 20% off that so many buyers think most homes are worth. But probably only a few and they were likely totally overpriced and on the market forever.

Here is a small snapshot of recent sales from the Charleston MLS showing the sold price compared to the list price. One home almost sold for that magical 20% off, the Eastside home closed at 19.6% less than list. One of the properties in Wild Dunes took a serious haircut and closed at 13.7% less than list. But homes in Rivertowne and the Farm at Wescott sold for 99+ percent of list and new construction in Drakesborough sold for the full asking price.

Charleston MLS statistics

Published Monday, September 14, 2009 6:57 AM by Howard Arnoff

Comments

# re: Sold price to list price comparison

Would be interesting if there is correlation between price and the percentage (Do lower price homes tend to bring more of the asking price relative to more expensive homes?). You'd think so given the relative strength of the lower end of the market.

Monday, September 14, 2009 8:13 AM by Ted

# re: Sold price to list price comparison

Ted, thanks for stopping by and there actually is a correlation on average based on the price of homes. For homes sold under 300k, price to list is 96.49%, from 300k to 600k, price to list is 94.20% and home over 600k, price to list is 90.64.

Monday, September 14, 2009 8:29 AM by Howard Arnoff

# re: Sold price to list price comparison

Personally, I think it is useless to see what what % of the listing price is the final closing price because only houses listed at the "market" price are selling.  For example, most ION houses closed this year are around 230-260/sqft.  Now, if you look at all ION listing, how many are listed at that range?  There is a reason that they are not selling.  I see several big foreclosures in IONs now, who knows how many are hiding?  SC is a judicial foreclosure only state i.e. slow like a turtle and probably at least a year behind national trend.

As for short sells, I know a house close 50k below short sell price.  You never know until you send the offer in.

Monday, September 14, 2009 11:47 AM by Jimmy

# re: Sold price to list price comparison

Jimmy, you make several excellent points.

First of all, when and if a home is very overpriced, it may not even be looked at by a potential buyer. There may be intermediate price adjustments taken before buyers even look at a home and an offer is received.

As I mentioned above, does the list price reflect current market conditions. It will always come down to both the buyers perceived value and the real current value of the home, not some arbitrary discount to list.

As to the specifics of I'on, a seller who is listing well above sold comps has no chance of selling because even if they got a full or very close to full price offer, unless it's cash with no appraisal contingency, guess what, the home won't appraise for the contract price and the sale won't close.  

Monday, September 14, 2009 12:18 PM by Howard Arnoff

# re: Sold price to list price comparison

HI, I really like this blog post.  I was wondering if you had any data on housing prices prior to the start of the housing boom?  I'm curious how this boom compares to other booms.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009 4:48 PM by John

# re: Sold price to list price comparison

John, there really hasn't been a housing boom on a national scale like what we just witnessed. It actually wasn't a housing boom, it was a credit boom and that was the basis for the eventual housing problem.

There is some data on Charleston home prices buried deep in my blog going back for many years if you're interested enough to find it. The Charleston area certainly had some nice price increases but nothing compared to the most troubled housing markets in California, Florida, Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009 5:12 PM by Howard Arnoff
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