1. We don’t have agendas….we just tell you what we see and know.

2. Your math is bad. You report 25% of homes had concessions. You then suggest the $5400 average represents 2% of the selling cost. You neglect to correctly factor in the original asking price vs. the actually selling price in your overall “effect” calculations. The 2% concession was probably only the last step.

3. I am always amazed that British real estate agents get a 3% commission and think it more than adequate while Americans grumble at 5.5%.

4. Sakles will rebound when the financail industry gets its collective act together. In the interim the houses that will sell (outside fo forclosure) will be the ones correctly priced.

5. The courant’s reporting is right on target…what misses the mark is your hope for skewed reporting.

Have a nice day.

I have no problem with a declining market. It’s time prices adjusted although I feel very sorry for people who were counting on their home equity.

Every night the news spews the same crud, and every day you see it in print and while you drive you listen to it etc…

So why are you blaming the Courant?

All markets are cyclical and right now we are going through what will amount to a 4-6 year down cycle after 7 great years.

Thats the way the cookie crumbles.

My problem is the Hartford Courant is inaccurate – they are not researching data that is easily available in lieu of creating headlines. As an example, see my comments about the notion that seller concessions are artificially inflating home prices. Simply false.

What is keeping home prices high is that sellers don’t have to sell, have enough equity to wait it out and there are enough buyers out there to keep the market moving. This isn’t true everywhere or in all price ranges but in some areas, it’s a strong sellers market. The Courant won’t report that!

I am a potential buyer who is staying away because prices are still way too high across the board. I think it’s great that some sellers are willing to negotiate, but from the looks of their asking prices, they are starting from an entirely unreasonable position. It is not worth it to try to negotiate with someone who is advertising to the world that he is unreasonable.

The fact of the matter is that prices went up too much, too fast and they need to come down. They have not come down nearly enough yet to make buying attractive. You can rent a comparable house for far less that the cost of owning, with no risk of lost capital. So rather than trying to negotiate with unreasonable sellers, I am simply renewing my lease for another year until asking prices soften up some more (does any serious person really believe they won’t). Hopefully by the end of 2008, sellers will start to wake up a bit.

Here on the other side of Connecticut in Ridgefield, our local rag actually has a Realtor writing the articles. He includes statistics whenever possible to give an unbiased snapshot of market activity.

We still have to paddle upstream against the national media, but the paper that most RIdgefielders read and trust is for the most part working hard to tell the truth about our LOCAL market.

Your hard work is appreciated. Thanks.

And of course, if buyers started buying, sellers would be able to sell and the price of homes would come back up, but I don’t think tremendously.

Getting people to start buying homes is the best medicine for this country. Just be careful about what kind of mortgage you’re getting.

The reality is that this is a great time to buy a home for most people.
• The mortgage rates are STILL at an all time low.
• Homes are priced right.
• Sellers are motivated.

Most advice from financial advisors is that the time to iget the best deal is to invest in an area when everyone else is not. SO IF YOU’RE IN THE MARKET FOR A HOME or a real estate investment this is the time. Don’t wait until the rates start going up because they are not going to come back down for a while.