Regional Spotlight: Survey Shows Buyers Ready to Play Waiting Game

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RISMEDIA, Jan. 24, 2008-Sixty-four of the top producing Realtors® from different firms in Marin, California say that more than half of today’s buyers expect prices to drop and are willing to wait for it. These are the latest results of the most recent Marin Market Conditions Survey. The survey also reported that more than 80% of sellers in Marin are relocating within the area, and nearly all participants agreed on the importance of staging a home to best present it for sale.

Authored and published three times a year by Tom Dreyer of Pacific Union GMAC Real Estate, local agents are able to anonymously respond to survey questions and provide valuable insight to current market conditions.

“I created this survey because it occurred to me that the perception that real estate agents and brokers have of their own market is only through the eyes of the transactions that they are working with at that moment. This creates a ‘market-myopia,’ or shortsightedness,” says Dreyer, who works from Pacific Union’s Greenbrae office.

“The survey provides a way to collect a broader view of what is really going on in the marketplace. The results offer a unique insight into the market from these professionals’ responses to questions about the current market as well as their predictions for the coming three months of home sales activity,” says Dreyer. “The questions are used to get an accurate view of the market rather than to steer responses toward a particular outcome. It offers an unbiased view of what other consumers and sellers perceive of the market without the influence of the media hype.”

Some additional key findings include:

- 69% of Realtor respondents said their buyer clients expect local prices to drop.
- 52% of respondents said they have buyers who are unwilling to bid near current asking prices and/or are waiting for a price reduction on a specific house.
- 33% of respondents said they have a seller client who is leaving Marin.
- 82% said their seller clients are relocating within Marin.
- 37% said they sold a house to a first-time buyer during the past quarter.
- 40% said the buyer from a recent sale was moving from San Francisco.
- 60% said the buyer of their most recent sale saw the property online then contacted their Realtor for more info.
- 93% of agents said they would spend between $5,000 and $30,000 to stage their own home before showing it to prospective buyers.
- 9% said that they have a client who may be facing a short sale or foreclosure in Marin.
- 49% of agents predicted the spring market for homes in the $2,000,000 and $4,000,000 price range will be a moderately-active balanced market between buyer and seller expectations.

Dreyer is a certified Estates Properties Specialist and served on the Board of Directors of the Marin Association of Realtors®.

For information, visit www.MarinSelect.com or e-mail Tom@MarinSelect.com.

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