Earlier on the blog, I posted about signals that the housing market could be near bottom, with the pace of home price declines slowing.
But a recent Seattle Times article on how there's an increase in the number of Seattle-area, luxury-home owners trying to sell for sale by owner, or without a real estate agent, makes it looks to me like a bottom to the housing market could be a long ways off.
FSBO sellers
The article notes that typically, owners of more affordable, lower-end homes are the ones who try to sell for sale by owner, to avoid paying a commission to a real estate agent. Commissions typically range from about 5 percent to 6 percent, or as much as $6,000 for a $100,000 home. (The median FSBO price was $153,000 in 2008, while the median price of homes sold by an agent was $211,000, according to the National Association of Realtors.)
Even high-end is hurting
But the fact that more owners of million-dollar-homes are trying to sell for sale by owner, "a fairly new phenomenon for homes of this level," according to the Seattle Times, shows that even fairly affluent homeowners are feeling the pain in this economy -- which makes it look not so good for the average consumer. If million-dollar-home owners have to scrimp and save, I doubt that there's an abundance of people out there feeling comfortable enough to go for a home purchase these days.
In the article, National Association of Realtors spokesman Walter Molony notes that the rise in FSBO attempts by Seattle-area homeowners is "unusual and a bit surprising." He adds, "That end of the market is absolutely dead in the water, with the freezing of the jumbo loan."—Lauren Baier Kim