Seattle Bubble

News & discussion about real estate & the housing bubble in the Seattle area.

Seattle Bubble - News & discussion about real estate & the housing bubble in the Seattle area.

Entries Tagged as 'list-price'

Are Seattle List Prices Especially Unrealistic Compared to Other Cities?

By The Tim on September 26th, 2009 at 6:02 PM · 37 Comments

Here’s a weekend data quickie for you. I just finished up a series of posts regarding price reductions on Redfin’s ten local blogs around the country, and I noticed something interesting in the data.

The data they sent me is pulled directly from their database, and so includes MLS, FSBO and REO listings. We calculated the total percent of all listings in each city/town and neighborhood that were price-reduced at some point before leaving the market (either sold or removed unsold from the market) in the past 90 days. Cities/towns or neighborhoods in which the number of homes taken off the market was too small to provide believable estimates are excluded from ranking.

In the table below I have simply posted the median price-reduced ratio for each market’s cities/towns and neighborhoods. (Click a column header to sort.)

Metro Area Cities/Towns Neighborhoods
Boston 47.1% 48.6%
Chicago 52.0% 48.0%
Los Angeles 31.1% 36.9%
New York 38.4% 31.9%
Orange County 36.1% 37.0%
San Diego 30.2% 28.0%
San Francisco 35.1% 33.3%
Sacramento 25.5% 27.7%
Seattle 52.1% 47.7%
Washington, DC 50.2% 44.9%

Note that Seattle cities/towns have the largest median price-reduced ratio among Redfin’s markets, and Seattle-area neighborhoods rank third, less than a full percentage point below the #1 slot.

Compared to Redfin’s California markets, Seattle sellers seem especially unrealistic. I just thought this data was an interesting look at the psychology of sellers here and around the country.

→ 37 CommentsCategories: Statistics
Tags: , , ,

List Prices: Seattle vs. Other Large Cities

By The Tim on September 23rd, 2009 at 12:00 PM · 72 Comments

Admittedly, yesterday’s post comparing home prices in Seattle to a remote location in Wisconsin really wasn’t fair. Granted, it was posted more for humor than for serious consideration, but there are certainly better comparisons that we could have made.

So what would be more fair? How about if we take the top 25 cities in the country by population, and see how Seattle home prices stack up?

Here are the top 25 cities in the United States, sorted by population based on Census Bureau estimates from July 2008 (source):

Top 25 US Cities by Population

And here’s the same list of cities, sorted by population density (people per square mile):

Top 25 US Cities by Population

Now here’s the same list of cities, sorted by median list price (source):

Top 25 US Cities by Population, Sorted by Median List Price

Detroit at #25 makes sense to me. Seattle at #3 above New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Chicago… not so much. I guess Seattle is still special (at least in the minds of sellers)!

→ 72 CommentsCategories: Statistics
Tags: , , , , ,