September City/Neighborhood Price Reductions

It’s been a while since we had a 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 117 cities/towns we ranked in the Bay Area this month, 14 had price-reduced ratios of fifty percent or more. The median price-reduced ratio was 35.1%.

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

Of the 73 neighborhoods we ranked this month, 9 had a price-reduced ratio of fifty percent or more. The median price-reduced ratio was 33.3%.

Download the full spreadsheet to check where your neighborhood came in.

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 119 cities/towns we ranked in the Bay Area this month, 61 (51%) had price-reduced ratios of fifty percent or more. Aptos and Alamo held their top positions from last month, bringing along four other cities from last month’s top ten as well.

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

Of the 109 neighborhoods we ranked in the Bay Area this month, 41 (38%) had a price-reduced ratio of fifty percent or more. Last month’s #1 Country Club Crest actually gained two percentage points, but down in Santa Clara County, Alexander blew every other neighborhood out of the water with a stunning 87% of listings coming off the market with at least one price reduction.

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.

February 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 122 cities/towns we ranked in the Bay Area this month, 69 (57%) had price-reduced ratios of fifty percent or more. Aptos held its top spot from last month’s top ten, while Morgan Hill, Rio del Mar, and Alamo also carried over from last month.

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

Of the 115 neighborhoods we ranked in the Bay Area this month, 59 (51%) had a price-reduced ratio of fifty percent or more. Country Club Crest carried over its #1 spot in the top ten from last month, while Rossmoor and Oak Grove made a repeat appearances as well.

There is definitely some consistency in the number of homes seeing price reductions month to month in the cities and neighborhoods around the Bay Area. If finding a good deal on a home is important to you, these neighborhoods might be a good place to start, as higher ratios of reduced-price homes indicate sellers that need to sell and are willing to lower the price to do so.

January 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 (saved in Excel 97-2003 .xls format by request). In order to keep from overwhelming you with charts, I am leaving out the top ten cities/towns/neighborhoods with the least reduced-price listings from the post, but you can still see that chart in the downloaded file.

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

Of the 128 cities/towns we ranked in the Bay Area this month, 52 had price-reduced ratios of fifty percent or more. Alamo, Danville, and Rio del Mar all made the top ten for the last three months.

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

46 of the 123 neighborhoods we ranked in Bay Area had a price-reduced ratio of fifty percent or more. There were no neighborhoods that made the top ten list for three months in a row.

For home buyers, cities and neighborhoods that consistently remain near the top of the list for price reductions may be a good place to potentially hunt for bargains. Once a home has been on the market a while, many buyers tend to overlook it, even though a price reduction or two may have brought it into a more desirable price range.

City/Town/Neighborhood December Price Reduction Update

Note: I believe we have finally worked out the kinks in getting some more in-depth data from the various Bay Area MLSes, and we are currently working on posts for sale-to-list ratio and inventory trend data that will be coming soon. In the mean time, here’s an update for our neighborhood price reduction data.

Let’s take another 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. In order to keep from overwhelming you with charts, I am leaving out the top ten cities/towns/neighborhoods with the least reduced-price listings from the post, but you can still see that chart in the downloaded file.

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

Of the 132 cities/towns we ranked in the Bay Area this month, 48 had price-reduced ratios of fifty percent or more. Aptos held the top spot again, while East Foothills, Seven Trees, Alamo, Danville, Gilroy, Rio del Mar all made the top ten last month and this month, with a consistently high volume of price reductions.

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

47 of the 143 neighborhoods we ranked in the Bay Area had a price-reduced ratio of fifty percent or more. Only Millsmont and last month’s #1 The Village carried over from last month’s top ten as well.

There is a slight tendency for neighborhoods and cities/towns with lower listing prices (per square foot) to have a larger share of reduced-price listings. If you’re looking for sellers that might be more willing to negotiate a lower price, these would be the places to look.

Which Neighborhoods Have the Fastest Price Reductions?

Here’s a fun set of data. Redfin data engineers have dug deep into our market databases to find out which neighborhoods have the fastest price reductions.

For listings with more than one price drop, we calculated the time between each price drop. Then, for each neighborhood, we calculated the median average number of days between successive price drops for listings. Neighborhoods with fewer than 20 reduced-price listings were excluded from the calculation.

Here’s a chart of the top ten neighborhoods with the fastest price reductions:

For those readers that are interested to know which neighborhoods had the slowest price drops, feel free to download the full data set in Excel 2007 format.

Only Caballo Hills made this month’s top ten neighborhoods with the most price-reduced listings and the fastest price reductions.

On average, neighborhoods where price reductions happen the fastest seem to be those with slightly lower prices, both in terms of overall median and per square foot. The average median sold price per square foot of the top ten neighborhoods with the fastest price reductions was $268, while the ten neighborhoods with the slowest price reductions had an average median sold price of $305 per square foot.

It is also interesting to note that the neighborhoods where price reductions happen the fastest also tend to have larger price reductions. Seven of the ten neighborhoods with the fastest price reductions had median total reductions of over 10%, while in the ten neighborhoods with the slowest price reductions, only three had median total reductions over 10%.

Which Cities, Towns, and Neighborhoods have the most price reductions?

Today Redfin is launching the new Sweet Digs, Analytical Edition. We’re proud to introduce Tim Ellis as the curator of this new effort. Tim will bring the same independent, data-driven perspective to Sweet Digs that first established him as a pre-eminent real estate blogger, but with pricing data that only a broker—and sometimes only Redfin—can access. He will be joined by other bloggers providing real-time insights on how contracts are being negotiated in neighborhoods around the area.

Sweet Digs is still a work in progress so if you have ideas about the types of posts you’d like to see — or if you’d like to contribute an analytical post of your own — just drop me (glenn at redfin dot com) or Tim (the_tim at thatchmound dot com) a line or leave a comment below. Thanks for all your support, and we look forward to hearing from you!

Regards, Glenn Kelman, CEO Redfin

I’d like to thank Glenn and the good people at Redfin for giving me the opportunity to delve into real estate data and share insights with readers from around the country. To kick things off, let’s take a 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.

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

Of the 133 cities/towns we ranked in the Bay Area, only 3 had a price-reduced ratio of sixty percent or more, while 30 came in with fifty percent or more. The south bay dominated the top ten most price-reduced list, with neighboring Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties taking seven spots. The remaining three cities in the top ten are over in Contra Costa County.

Here are the top ten cities with the least price-reduced listings:

In general, the cities that make up the top ten least price-reduced list are much closer to the bay, which is not particularly surprising. Even with BART, commuting from way out of town to the city centers can’t be fun, so I would expect demand to be stronger closer in, resulting in fewer sellers that need to drop their prices.

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

34 of the 156 neighborhoods we ranked in Redfin’s Bay Area coverage area had a price-reduced ratio of fifty percent or more. The top neighborhoods for price-reductions are much more geographically diverse than the top cities, with Santa Clara, Contra Costa, Almeda, and Solano counties all making appearances.

Lastly, let’s take a look at which neighborhoods had the least price-reduced listings taken off the market:

Neighborhoods with fewer price reductions tend to be considerably more expensive than those with the most price reductions, with median sold prices averaging twice as high. For example, the median price per square foot in San Jose’s The Village (the top price-reduced neighborhood) is currently $262, but in Berkeley Hills, at the bottom of the price-reduced list, the median price per square foot is $429.