Sticky Prices

As many of you have noticed, inventories are rising at the Shore and other areas of the country as well. Not surprisingly, the high inventories reflect, in large part, the refusal of owners to reduce asking prices – simple economics 101 type stuff.

Some one on another blog pointed out that some inexperienced Realtors might be responsible for the lack of asking price downward movement. The argument goes something like this, and it makes sense to me. The housing boom created a huge number of Realtors in the past three years, and as a result there is a huge pool of inexperienced agents out there. This huge pool of late comers is now looking for listings to sell and will essentially take on any listing out there, even if the owner wants to list the property at a ridiculously high price. At another time in the past, when there weren’t so many Realtors to choose from, an experienced Realtor would have likely refused to represent a seller if the listing price was so high that getting a transaction done would be nearly impossible.