Kris,

We are experiencing a definite real estate slowdown throughout most of San Diego County. Most listings that we’re looking at are overpriced. It seems to us that sellers have not gotten the message. Prices have dropped. As you know, thousands of new agents have joined the San Diego Board of Realtors in the last few years and these new agents have raised expectations of sellers throughout the County. The quantities of listings both cancelled and expired (FAILED) are the highest in several years. Sellers need to stick with or get with a strong experienced agent and “listen up.” The market has changed. They need to accept the fact that they are not going to profit as much as they would have a year ago. Stronger agents can lead, guide, and get the job done. (as long as the sellers are listening)

Steve Roque and Jan Meyer

Hi Steve (and Jan), and welcome to the Blog! So glad you have agreed to join forces with us. I know that you will bring valuable perspective and experience to the forum.

Now, back to business. You are generally correct about pricing, but I think it is worth mention that, in my opinion, even the correctly priced properties are simply sitting longer due to the dramatic increase in inventory. Just because a home doesn’t sell in the first couple of weeks doesn’t necessarily mean it is over-priced. I caution sellers to be patient in this market. With average market times in the 60-day range, a home that sells in less time is “over-achieving”. I know you recall, of course, the early to mid ’90s when six-month market times were not uncommon. So in many respects, I think these still are the good ol’ days.

As a transaction coordinator, I handle the paperwork for a variety of sales across San Diego county from all the agents in the office. Having also been a Realtor for the last six years, I definitely think that we are leaning towards a buyer’s market. I am seeing more and more sellers paying for buyers closing costs or paying for the first year of HOA dues, etc.

I am also seeing more cancelled escrows than ever before. In March, I had almost as many cancelled escrows as I had closed escrows (only one less). Some of these cancellations were the result of a seller blowing out a contingent buyer (which would have never even had their contingent offer accepted a couple of years ago), but most of the cancellations I saw were the result of the buyer walking away for a variety of reasons.

[...] In a previous post of mine I talked about the definition of a “Buyer’s Market?”. In short, if at current absorption rates (homes sold per month) it would take six months for all active listings to sell, the market is a normal one; longer would be a Buyer’s Market, shorter would be a Seller’s Market. This Spring/Summer, we have returned to more of a normal market, although coming off of many years of frenzied activity, it doesn’t feel very normal to a lot of us. An article in this morning’s Union Tribune said that San Diego currently has a 7.1 month inventory of homes for sale, which would suggest we are indeed moving toward a market favoring buyers, and I believe few will question that this is a trend. Fall should be interesting. It remains to be seen whether buyers will begin seeing the advantages of a lower interest rate environment which will offset anticipated (by some) future price reductions or will continue to take the wait-and-see approach that is making the listing (and buyer’s) agents crazy right now. [...]