Are home sellers, buyers more demanding here?
Yes to that - and I have a couple stats to back it up.
Home sellers here in the Bay State are a stingy bunch - they don't like to offer incentives and a fair percentage won't budge on price.
I'm getting that from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors annual survey of home buyers and sellers, just released a few days ago.
OK, just to be clear,that's my interpretation of the numbers, The Realtors, God bless 'em, are crowing that a "desire to own'' is what prompted 36 percent of buyers jump into the market.
Back to my take. Roughly 40 percent of those polled who managed to sell their homes did so without dropping the price. And just 26 percent offered incentives to lure buyers - about half the national (44 percent) average.
The most common deal sweeteners were help with "closing costs, home warranty policies and credit toward remodeling or repairs," according to the survey. Kind of boring - what happened to offering playoff tickets (actually scratch that) or a Caribbean vacation? Too gauche, I guess.
And buyers? Well more than a few our our Bay State buyers seem to be in search of the perfect price - and willing to wait it out until they get it.
The typical buyer here prowled the open house circuit for four months, looking at 12 houses before deciding to put pen to paper. That compares to the three months buyers nationally took to find a home - and look at the same number (12) of homes.
It's also interesting to compare those numbers to 2006, when the real estate market was just starting to come down from its bubble years' peak.
The average buyer in Massachusetts then looked at nine homes over three months before picking one, according to MAR's 2006 survey.
So there you have it, sellers don't want to budge much if at all on price and buyers want a deal. And the result is anemic sales activity, with buyers endlessly kicking the tires and home owners staying out of the market unless they absolutely, positively have to sell.
It's a classic standoff. And if you have any theories what's going break this stalemate, I am all ears.
