Greater Boston tops in number of stingy sellers, report says
Who knew? OK, I mean we all know home sellers around here are a particularly stubborn bunch. But the stingiest in the country?
So says Trulia, which just launched a new "home offer" report, which takes a mountain of real estate data and slices and dices it into a range of entertaining categories.
Boston is the top market in the country when it comes to stingy buyers, with an average price reduction of just 5 percent. By contrast, Atlanta home buyers lop an average 9 percent off their listing price and in Baltimore, 10 percent, according to Trulia.
Of course, poor Detroit has the most generous sellers, so to speak, in the country. If the home doesn't move, sellers in the Motor City will hit the gas and slash the listing price by nearly 20 percent.
If you want to drill down into various suburbs and towns around Boston, check out this interactive map.
Whether on the North Shore, South Shore, or MetroWest, sellers across the Boston area appear relatively quick to offer a modest discount, say four or five percent after a month or two. And then that's it, with the odds of a second price cut are less than even.
Just take Hingham, where list prices range from $900,000 to $950,000. On average, sellers will drop their asking price by 4 percent after two months, with just a 35 percent chance of a second reduction.
In Needham, where the average list price is over a million, sellers will drop prices by 4 percent after 58 days if they haven't found a buyer. Then it's take it or leave it. There's just an 18 percent chance of a second reduction.
Happy house hunting!
