Tuesday, November 12, 2002
Online price gap goes south
Difference between buyers' and sellers' expectations drops 2%
The gap
between what online home sellers hoped to yield and what online home buyers
hoped to pay was $125,000 in September, a 2 percent drop from the peak gap of
$128,000 in August, according to a monthly trends report by HomeGain.
Prospective
buyers raised their expectations of what they wished to pay to $141,000 in
September, up 7 percent from $132,000 in August, while homeowners using the
Internet to sell a home expected to yield an average price of $266,000, up 2
percent from $260,000 in August.
The San
Francisco Bay Area led the nation with HomeGain’s highest seller price
expectation of $497,000, up 3 percent from August. Sacramento, Calif., was
second with an average sellers’ price expectation of $414,000, up 18 percent
from August.
Declines
in price expectations came from prospective home sellers in Orange County,
Calif.; Providence, R.I.; and San Diego. All other markets showed increases in
price expectations ranging from 3 percent to 18 percent.
HomeGain
matches prospective home buyers and sellers with local real estate agents and
provides home listings and home valuations.
Emeryville, Calif.-based HomeGain founder and chairman
Bradley Inman is also the founder and publisher of Inman News.
