How much are buyers (and sellers) negotiating on price?

More than they ever have!  Pre-boom, buyers (and thus sellers) were negotiating an average of 2.6% on price -- that is to say that homes were selling for 97.4% of the list price.  That went as low as an average of only 0.9% of negotiating room in 2004-2005, before rising quickly to current market conditions where the average negotiations are 5.3% of the list price.



If we look closer at the data pre-boom (c2000), mid-boom (c2005) and post-boom (c2011) we find some interesting facts:

• Last year (2011) 8% of buyers paid more than full price for their homes! 
  
• Only 13% of buyers negotiated more than 10% off the list price last year.
• In 2005, almost one out of four buyers (22%) paid more than full price for their homes.
• In 2005, only 9% of buyers negotiated more than 5% off of the list price of the home they purchased.