The blogger over at Calculated Risk spoke with a top San Diego real estate agent who’s been in the business for about 20 years.
The Realtor said the slowness of the last couple months has surpassed any other time in her career, even in the housing crash of the early 1990s.
The blogger adds:
She said Standard Pacific called her and offered a 5% commission on any new home. Usually SPF just offers a small finders fee. She also said the builder offered substantial upgrades to any buyer. Last year these homes would have sold immediately – now they can’t find buyers.
The blogger also relayed the Realtor’s surprise that the “heavy discounting in the existing home market” hasn’t been reflected in any official data releases.
One person who read the anecdote questioned how “surprised” the realtor actually was.
The commenter speculated:
I mean these guys pretty much self-report, right? And bad news (fact or false rumor) in a market this wound up spreads like a social disease – there would be tremendous incentive to tone down ‘unwarranted irrationalities’.
You can read more here.
– KELLY BENNETT