CNN Money has a good article today on real estate demand. They show how the vultures in the market are being kept at bay in the face of slowing demand. Sellers instead of cutting prices drastically are being very patient and keeping the bottom feeders from feasting.

Typically when the market slows down sellers will be innundated with low ball offers that try to buy the home at a steep discount. The sellers and their real estate agents give in and then the comps in a neighborhood drop significantly. This cycle the sellers are holding firm to their pricing and are willing to have their homes on the market for a longer period of time.

Now that the sellers are not doing foolish things, we have to watch the real estate agents. The slow markets are hurting them the most, and if sellers do not succumb to the lowball offers, the market will not have enough churn in it to feed the agents. They may start loosing their cool and trying to talk their sellers into the first offer in the door just to get any commission.  

There are so many circling Manhattan this summer that they may be canceling each other out. Any little price weakness attracts them and the competition they provide keeps prices from decreasing.
Steinberg tells of a listing that hasn’t sold for several months at a price in the mid-$6 millions. A buyer finally stepped up and offered just $5 million flat – the offer was rejected.
Pam Liebman, CEO of the Corcoran Group, a brokerage that specializes in Manhattan, Eastern Long Island and Florida properties, says she has seen no price fall off to date in Florida. “Buyers may be negotiating more, but sellers are mostly holding firm,” she says. “There’s been a drop in sales volume but not in prices.”
Jonas Lee, a co-founder of Redbrick Partners, makes his living by buying residential properties at the right price. Lee hasn’t noticed any wholesale bargain hunting yet, though he says the general slowdown in markets nationally should create buying opportunities for vultures.
Lee says that there could be some bargains soon in some once bubbly markets, such as South Florida. Another market that Lee identifies as ripe for a fall is the condo segment in the District of Columbia and its upscale suburbs. And he’s eyeing California’s Central Valley cities, including Bakersfield, Stockton and Modestovia CNN Money

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