March City/Neighborhood Price Reductions

Let’s take our monthly look at which cities and towns have the most price reductions.

The following charts show the percent of MLS, FSBO or REO listings that were price-reduced at some point before leaving the market (either sold or removed unsold from the market) in the past 90 days. Cities/towns or neighborhoods in which the number of homes taken off the market was too small to provide believable estimates are excluded from ranking.

For those that are interested, I have uploaded the full data set in Excel format here. The downloadable Excel file also includes charts showing the top ten cities/towns/neighborhoods with the least reduced-price listings.

First up are the top ten cities with the most price-reduced listings:

Of the 131 cities/towns we ranked in the Seattle area this month, 94 (72%) had price-reduced ratios of fifty percent or more. Such a large percentage would seem to indicate that most sellers around Seattle are still having trouble correctly gauging the market price of their home before putting it on the market.

Getting a little more granular, let’s look at the top ten the Seattle area neighborhoods for price reductions:

Of the 100 neighborhoods we ranked in the Seattle area this month, 46 (46%) had a price-reduced ratio of fifty percent or more. Three different Tacoma neighborhoods popped up in the top ten again, along with repeat appearances from Sammamish, Hillsdale, and Education Hill.

We’re still seeing a degree of consistency in which neighborhoods and cities have the most price reductions. Are sellers in these locations just not very good at finding the right market price in the first place, or are they so anxious to sell that they drop the price early and often? Either way, the regions with the really high percentage of reduced-price homes are probably a good place to go bargain-hunting.