Home Price Reductions Continue - 1 in 4 Home Sellers Cut their Asking Price

Wed, Aug 11, 2010

Today Trulia announced that 25 percent of the home listings on the market in the United States as of August 1, 2010 have experienced at least one price reduction. This makes August the fourth straight month in increases for national price reduction levels. The total dollar amount slashed from home prices in America’s 50 largest cities was $30.1 billion, and the average discount on price-reduced homes continued to hold at 10 percent off of the original listing price.

“With one out of every four homes experiencing at least one price reduction, sellers are feeling no relief this summer, in a market climate of fewer qualified buyers and widespread uncertainty about the job market. If buyers are unqualified to buy, it doesn’t matter how low interest rates are or how discounted a home is,” says Pete Flint, co-founder and CEO of Trulia. “I stated at the beginning of the year that I did not expect to see the housing market stabilize or recover in 2010, and I believe that prediction is being proven true today. We will be bouncing around the bottom for months to come. If you are looking to do a short-term buy, this is the wrong market for you. People buying today need to have a plan to stay in their homes over the long term.”

Of the largest 50 American cities, half had price reduction levels of 30 percent or more of the homes for sale. This month, Minneapolis breaks the all-time, national record of having the highest percentage of listings experiencing at least one price reduction (42 percent). Previously, Minneapolis held at 40 percent for the past three months, which set the previous record. No other city has reached this mark since Trulia started tracking home price reductions in April 2009. With an average discount for price-reduced homes at nine percent, the total dollar amount slashed from Minneapolis home prices was $33.8 million.

The Southwestern U.S. Continues to Lead with Price Reduction Increases

Cities in Southwestern states experienced some of the largest surges in price reductions. Las Vegas saw the most dramatic increase of 56 percent, month-over-month. Cities in California also experienced notable increases with San Diego and Los Angeles increasing by 15 percent and 12 percent respectively, from July to August. Fresno saw a 28 percent increase in the rate of price reductions, while San Jose experienced a 13 percent increase. New York, which had a 15 percent increase, was the only city on the East Coast to see a double-digit percentage increase.

The following U.S. cities experienced the biggest increases in price reductions from July 1, 2010 to August 1, 2010:

City	State	July 2010	August 2010	Percentage Change
Las Vegas	NV	12%	18%	56%
Fresno	CA	19%	24%	28%
El Paso	TX	18%	21%	19%
San Diego	CA	20%	23%	15%
New York	NY	17%	20%	15%
San Jose	CA	16%	18%	13%
Colorado Springs	CO	27%	30%	12%
Los Angeles	CA	23%	25%	12%
Albuquerque	NM	31%	34%	11%

Luxury Market Still Feeling The Pain

Sellers of luxury homes (those listed at $2 million and above) continue to provide massive discounts of of 14 percent off of the original listing price, on average. By comparison, the average discount for homes priced less than $2 million remains at 9 percent.

August 2010 Price Reductions - Top 50 U.S. cities based on population: Click here to download data chart.

Rank	City	State	Percent of Listings with Price Reductions	Average Reduction (%)	Total Amount of Reductions
1	Minneapolis	MN	42%	9%	$ 33,819,493
2	Milwaukee	WI	39%	9%	$ 25,062,765
3	Dallas	TX	36%	9%	$ 156,394,606
4	Boston	MA	35%	7%	$ 47,060,800
5	Memphis	TN	35%	9%	$ 28,206,058
6	Kansas City	MO	35%	9%	$ 35,783,696
7	Albuquerque	NM	34%	8%	$ 39,954,480
8	Phoenix	AZ	34%	13%	$ 109,770,615
9	Mesa	AZ	33%	11%	$ 28,348,320
10	Columbus	OH	33%	9%	$ 23,732,304
11	Jacksonville	FL	32%	12%	$ 100,430,400
12	Arlington	TX	32%	6%	$ 9,991,944
13	Baltimore	MD	32%	11%	$ 41,873,380
14	Omaha	NE	32%	7%	$ 14,033,656
15	Tucson	AZ	32%	11%	$ 65,678,793
16	Portland	OR	32%	9%	$ 48,174,000
17	Atlanta	GA	31%	10%	$ 186,695,352
18	Virginia Beach	VA	31%	8%	$ 42,106,115
19	Chicago	IL	31%	9%	$ 226,322,091
20	Indianapolis	IN	30%	8%	$ 36,242,235
21	Cleveland	OH	30%	13%	$ 14,429,270
22	Seattle	WA	30%	8%	$ 72,773,546
23	Nashville	TN	30%	8%	$ 38,058,104
24	Colorado Springs	CO	30%	7%	$ 44,417,542
25	Philadelphia	PA	30%	9%	$ 67,681,614
26	Raleigh	NC	29%	7%	$ 35,926,488
27	Austin	TX	28%	7%	$ 90,510,222
28	Long Beach	CA	28%	9%	$ 25,491,051
29	Louisville	KY	28%	7%	$ 16,671,340
30	Houston	TX	28%	9%	$ 164,122,608
31	Tulsa	OK	28%	7%	$ 18,214,328
32	Fort Worth	TX	26%	8%	$ 39,857,393
33	Charlotte	NC	26%	9%	$ 86,347,360
34	Los Angeles	CA	25%	11%	$ 248,665,167
35	Oklahoma City	OK	25%	8%	$ 13,057,152
36	Washington	DC	25%	9%	$ 56,245,248
37	San Antonio	TX	25%	7%	$ 68,895,015
38	San Francisco	CA	24%	9%	$ 73,594,112
39	Fresno	CA	24%	11%	$ 11,712,696
40	Honolulu	HI	24%	8%	$ 37,236,150
41	Miami	FL	23%	14%	$ 173,200,000
42	San Diego	CA	23%	8%	$ 92,447,080
43	Sacramento	CA	21%	9%	$ 16,045,404
44	El Paso	TX	21%	7%	$ 16,245,365
45	Denver	CO	21%	8%	$ 47,192,002
46	New York	NY	20%	10%	$ 458,233,952
47	Las Vegas	NV	18%	13%	$ 94,540,446
48	Detroit	MI	18%	26%	$ 10,650,914
49	San Jose	CA	18%	8%	$ 30,417,552
50	Oakland	CA	17%	10%	$ 10,289,096

Click here to download Consumer Tips: 7 Insider Secrets for Bargain-Seeking House Hunters.

Trulia Price Reductions

Trulia is the first and only national real estate site to provide consumers with the ability to use price reductions as a search filter in their quest to find a deal in today’s market across all 50 states. Trulia’s Price Reduction feature can be accessed from the Trulia homepage and is deeply integrated into the existing search experience on the search results page and via the advanced search tab. Detailed information regarding multiple price reductions and prior sold data is now available on each property listing page.

Providing home buyers with access to price reduction data empowers them to make more informed decisions regarding which home to purchase and helps consumers get the most home for their dollar. It also helps home sellers price their homes competitively as more homes come onto the market.

Methodology: All price change data is from live listings on Trulia.com, as of August 1, 2010 and tracks all price reductions from July 1, 2009 to August 1, 2010. This data does not include foreclosure properties. Trulia obtains its listing information from brokers, agents, third party aggregators and Multiple Listing Services (MLSs). The percentage of listings with price reductions includes any non-foreclosure property on Trulia.com that has experienced at least one price reduction since it was first posted on the site. The city level data is for listings within the city boundary, and not for metro areas.

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