The Popular Price Point

In the Raleigh Triangle Area, the MLS uses a service to schedule showings.  I well remember the days when an agent had to call each separate real estate company with fingers crossed, hoping someone was on phone duty to give out lock box combos.  Now every member of the MLS pays a  monthly fee to have the Centralized Showing Service make showing appointments for us.  It’s great!

Interestingly, because of CSS we now have data available on showings.  How many are being made, on what dates, for what properties?  This gives us an good overview of buyer behavior in our local market.  Since one buyer looks at several (or many) houses before buying, the number of showings will always be greater than the number of potential sales.  Nevertheless, the data does give a good indication of which properties are of most interest.

The graph above represents showings on resale homes in Wake County, NC, in the month of October 2011 by price point, with condos and townhomes shown separately.  Note that the categores are not equal.  00 to 149.9 encompasses a spread of $150k, while the next category is 150-199.9, a spread 1/3 the size — only $50K.  The next four categories are all equal,  $100K in size — the 200’s, 300’s, 400’s, and 500’s.  After that come two categories twice that large: the 600’s and 700’s are lumped together, as are the 800’s and 900’s.  Everything above $1M goes into the final category.

Supply and demand always rule — always.  Where the buyers are looking, that’s where the most demand is focused, and that’s where it’s going to be hardest to find a “deal.”   All buyers think they should get a deal right now — after all, it’s a buyer’s market!  But the graph explains why some  buyers are frustrated.  The most popular price point is $150-300, and in that range we’re seeing shorter Days on Market and multiple offers.  Although the overall market is indeed a buyers market, in that  specific 150K price range, not so much.

(Calculations and graph courtesy of the Triangle Area Residential Real Estate Report.)