Home-price cuts fewer, smaller

The percentage of listings with price reductions declined slightly from July to August, and when sellers did slash their asking price they made smaller reductions, according to an analysis of 27 markets by real estate brokerage ZipRealty.

While nearly half of homes on the market in August -- 44.2 percent -- had seen at least one price reduction, that's down from 45.7 percent in July. The raw number of homes with price reductions, 281,765, was down 4.3 percent, as inventory in markets tracked by ZipRealty fell 10.5 percent to 637,313.

The average price reduction was 9.6 percent of list price, down from 11.3 percent in July, while the the median reduction amount ($24,494) was down 2 percent.

There was considerable variation by market, with the highest percentage of homes with price reductions in Orlando (51 percent), Jacksonville (50 percent) and Chicago (49 percent).

The markets with the lowest percentage of listings with reduced asking prices were Denver (31 percent), Los Angeles (35 percent) and San Francisco (37 percent).

Sellers slashing asking prices in Las Vegas made the biggest reductions (21.7 percent), followed by several markets in Florida: Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Palm Beach (19.5 percent), Orlando (17.3 percent), Naples (14.9 percent), and Tampa (14.1 percent).

Sellers reducing their asking price in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., made the smallest adjustment (5 percent), followed by Richmond, Va. (5.15 percent), Denver (5.3 percent) and Houston (5.3 percent).

In another comparison of listing price and selling price during July, listing and valuation site Zillow.com found U.S. homebuyers paid 3.3 percent less than list price on average, down from 3.5 percent in June and 4.6 percent in January (see story).

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