NPR Is Right On --- The Potential Real Estate Standoff

Perhaps Jonathan Clements, a personal finance columnist at The Wall Street Journal, has been reading my blog?  Unlikely, however he speaks of a possible real estate standoff in a recent NPR interview, making many of the same observations as I made a few weeks ago.

In the interview, Jonathan ponders . . . "are we going to see prices drop, which will encourage buyers to step up to the plate and purchase, or are we going to continue with the standoff, where sellers are reluctant to cut prices and buyers are reluctant to commit?"  He then makes some other great observations about selling in today's market:

• Some sellers look at pricing psychologically -- they want to sell their home for what they paid for it plus improvements, or at the price the neighbors sold their house, etc.
• Real estate is an expensive asset to hold, given mortgage principal, interest, taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc.

I encourage you to listen to the entire interview (here), and then, if you are a seller, consider how the pricing of your home will affect the timing of your sale.