Posted August 16, 2010 by

Market update from WSJ- Redfin: Less Than Half of All Home-Sale Attempts Successful in ‘09

I don't really feel like this has much to do with Dallas real estate but it does have some interesting statistics. From a real estate standpoint, once again, Dallas seems to be protected.While we are seeing lots of short sales just like anywhere else, for the most part properties are still trading hands.

 

By Nick Timiraos

A survey of seven major housing markets found that less than half of all attempts to sell a home in 2009 had, as of last Wednesday, resulted in a sale.

The analysis, conducted by Redfin Corp., a Seattle-based brokerage that operates in nine states, shows just how tough the housing market has become–and just how many sellers are unwilling to lower their prices.

The survey looked at how the 500,000 homes that were listed for sale last year in seven of the nation’s biggest counties had fared. Around 47% of those listings had sold by last week, while just 4% of those listings were still active. The success rate looks at the number of listings that sold through the original listing agent; if someone hired an agent, and then changed agents, the home is added again to the count of new listings.

“There’s just such a standoff in the market between sellers and buyers, both with unrealistic expectations, and a lot of heartbreak and wasted effort,” said Glenn Kelman, Redfin’s chief executive. He said that buyers’ complaints of overpriced or stale listings had prompted the number crunching, which looked at properties in the counties that include Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix and Boston.

Of those counties, Phoenix’s Maricopa County and San Francisco County had the highest share of listings that sold, at 59% and 57%, respectively. Chicago’s Cook County had just one-third of all homes listed during 2009 sell by mid-August.

Seller Stand-Off: A Look at Redfin’s Data

County Name	Listings Activated in 2009	# 2009 Listings Sold	% 2009 Listings Sold	# Still Active	% Still Active
Cook County, IL	134,710	44,789	33.3%	7,893	5.9%
Fulton County, GA	27,089	9,941	35.8%	1,329	4.8%
King County, WA	51,252	21,500	42.0%	1,729	3.4%
Los Angeles County, CA	130,326	68,564	52.6%	3,079	2.4%
San Francisco County, CA	9,289	5,259	56.6%	112	1.2%
Maricopa County, AZ	137,647	81,204	59.0%	5,008	3.6%
Suffolk County, MA	15,763	5,682	36.1%	393	2.5%
7-County Average	506,796	236,939	46.8%	19,545	3.9%

Many sellers aren’t willing to reduce their prices because they don’t want to sell their homes for less than the amount they owe. Those “short sales” typically take much longer to complete because a bank must sign off on the deal, and they can be just as damaging to a borrower’s credit score as a foreclosure. Banks are less likely to approve short sales for borrowers who can’t demonstrate hardship or imminent default.

Others simply think that they shouldn’t have to reduce their prices, often because they’ve plunked down lots of money for renovations that they had hoped would boost the value of their home. The buyers may be happy to pull their homes off and wait for the market to come back.

Already, there are some signs that this year could be worse than 2009. Many markets have seen inventory levels shoot up since a tax credit for home buyers expired in April.