RISMEDIA, June 9, 2009-Trulia, Inc., known for being one of the best places to start your real estate search, announced that 23.6% of current homes on the market in the United States have experienced at least one price cut, totaling $27.4 billion in reductions. The average price-reduced home has seen a listing price reduction of 10.6%.
Major metropolitan areas continue to be hit hard by price reductions. Of the top 50 cities in the U.S. based on population, 33 have seen 25% or more of home listings reduced in price, higher than the national average of 23.6%. U.S. cities that have seen at least 30% of homes reduced in price include:
• Jacksonville, Florida – 36%
• Tucson, Arizona – 32%
• Boston, Massachusetts – 32%
• Los Angeles, California – 32%
• Columbus, Ohio – 31%
• Dallas, Texas – 31%
• Honolulu, Hawaii – 31%
• Minneapolis, Minnesota – 31%
• Austin, Texas – 30%
• Washington, DC – 30%
• Baltimore, Maryland – 30%
• Las Vegas, Nevada – 30%
“Summer time is the peak season for buying and selling, and with some of the lowest prices in the last decade, we expect to it be a busy season,” said Pete Flint, Trulia co-founder and CEO. “Everyone wants to think they are getting the best deal available and price reductions are helping to spark a renewed interest in the U.S. real estate market.”
The Foreclosure Effect
The national average for price reductions on current home listings is 10.6%, but sellers in the areas hardest hit by foreclosures are slashing prices the most. Detroit home owners on average reduce their homes by 23%, while Las Vegas sellers reduce their homes by 16% and Miami sellers reduce their homes by 15%. Phoenix and Mesa are also experiencing deep price reductions with 13% slashed off the original listing price.
Luxury Market Getting Hit Hard
24% of homes with a selling price greater than $2 million are seeing price reductions compared to 23.6% of homes on the market for the less than $2 million. While the percentage of homes seeing discounts are almost identical, discounts on luxury homes are significantly more with 14.3% being slashed off the original listing price compared to only 9.7% of homes under the $2 million dollar price tag.
Trulia Price Reductions
According to the company, Trulia is one of the first national real estate sites to provide consumers with the ability to use price reductions as a search filter in their quest to find a deal in today’s market. Trulia’s Price Reduction feature can be accessed from the Trulia homepage and is deeply integrated into the existing search experience on the search results page and via the advanced search tab. Detailed information regarding multiple price reductions and prior sold data is now available on each property listing page.
Providing home buyers with access to price reduction data will help them be better informed as they decide which home to purchase and will help ensure consumers get the most home for their dollar. It will also help home sellers price their homes competitively as more homes come onto the market.
Charts are available for download at: http://www.trulia.com/info/june09pricereductions.
Methodology: All price change data is from live listings on Trulia.com, as of June 1, 2009 and tracks all price reductions from June 1, 2008 to June 1, 2009. This data does not include foreclosure properties. Trulia obtains its listing information from brokers, agents, third party aggregators and MLSs. The percentage of listings with price reductions includes any non-foreclosure property on Trulia.com that has experienced at least one price reduction since it was first posted on the site. The city level data is for listings within the city boundary, and not for metro areas.
