Where are buyers getting the biggest discounts?

While the number and speed of price reductions is certainly interesting information (to some), what really matters to folks out there in the market right now is the size of price reductions. Better yet, how receptive are sellers to accepting an offer below their asking price?

Let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Where are buyers currently getting the biggest discount off the asking price in Los Angeles County? Our goal in sharing this data is to help potential buyers to know which neighborhoods are softer in terms of sale price discounts off list price, to better equip you when making an offer, and help you know where to look for potential bargains.

In the charts below, we have taken all sales data from the last two months in Los Angeles County and sorted it by zip code. We calculated the overall difference between the sale price and the list price. Note that this reflects the final list price, after all price drops in the listing. Any zips with fewer than ten sales are excluded from the top and bottom ten rankings, but interested readers may download the full data summary in Excel format (xls).

Here are the top ten zip codes with the largest overall discount:

Five of the ten zip codes with the largest discounts had average list prices well north of $1 million. Only two came in with average list prices below $400,000—93591 (Palmdale), and 90016 in LA.

Here are the ten zip codes with the smallest discounts:

77 of the 220 zip codes we ranked came in with discounts under 2%, indicating that either buyers are more willing to pay asking price or sellers in those regions are better at pricing their homes appropriately to the market in the first place.

Several neighborhoods in LA actually had an average sale price that was higher than the final list price, with the largest difference coming in Lynwood (90262). Only one of the top 10 zip codes that are selling for low discounts or over asking had an average list price above $400k (90041).

In fact, looking at the overall data, there is a definite trend of homes in neighborhoods with lower average prices selling closer to asking price. Keep that in mind if you’re thinking of making a below-list offer.

Of the 8,914 sales we tracked in the 2-month period, 191 homes sold for 20% or more off the asking price, while 2,780 homes sold for more than asking.