Welcome to another edition of Lowball!
Lowball! takes a look at home sales over the past week from a very different perspective. For those new to Lowball!, a lowball offer is when a buyer offers a significantly lower bid than asking in hopes that the seller accepts the offer. We take a list of home sales over the past week and pick out the sales that have the highest percentage difference between asking price and selling price.The reason for Lowball! is to show buyers that the market has changed and buyers now have considerably more leverage than sellers. Just a short time ago, lowball offers would have been laughed at and discarded, however, not any more. The fact that so many under-asking offers are being accepted is clear proof that the market is changing.
The list does not contain all sales, I hand-pick the most interesting sales from the list. These listings might be the highest dollar drops, biggest percentage reductions, or sales in towns that are thought to still be ‘hot’. Please note, even with double digit percentage reductions, these homes are still incredibly overpriced. This week I tried to grab listings that were more affordable than many I’ve posted in the past.
Since I was away last week, I opened the window to include more listings than the usual weekly list. Let me just say that it’s been a fantastic month for the lowballers in Northern NJ.
MLS# 2104655 – Chatham, NJ
Asking Price $2,350,000
Selling Price $1,800,000 (23.4% Lowball!)
MLS# 2109519 – Franklin Lakes, NJ
Asking Price $1,299,000
Selling Price $999,999 (23.0% Lowball!)
MLS# 2077400 – Bedminster, NJ
Asking Price $1,195,000
Selling Price $937,500 (21.5% Lowball!)
MLS# 2100818 – Paterson, NJ
Asking Price $289,900
Selling Price $230,000 (20.7% Lowball!)
MLS# 2109752 – Hopatcong, NJ
Asking Price $289,900
Selling Price $230,000 (20.7% Lowball!)
MLS# 2043432 – Newton, NJ
Asking Price $250,000
Selling Price $200,000 (20% Lowball!)
MLS# 2095896 – Butler, NJ
Asking Price $209,000
Selling Price $175,000 (16.3% Lowball!)
MLS# 2204182 – Scotch Plains, NJ
Asking Price $399,900
Selling Price $335,000 (16.2% Lowball!)
MLS# 2095318 – Lake Mohawk/Sparta, NJ
Asking Price $329,900
Selling Price $278,000 (15.7% Lowball!)
MLS# 2100851 – Sparta Twp, NJ
Asking Price $1,175,500
Selling Price $999,999 (14.9% Lowball!)
MLS# 2097357 – Ridgewood, NJ
Asking Price $470,000
Selling Price $400,000 (14.9% Lowball!)
MLS# 2111484 – Clark, NJ
Asking Price $800,000
Selling Price $685,000 (14.4% Lowball)
MLS# 2101435 – Randolph, NJ
Asking Price $599,900
Selling Price $515,000 (14.2% Lowball!)
MLS# 2203563 – West Caldwell, NJ
Asking Price $369,000
Selling Price $320,000 (13.3% Lowball!)
MLS# 2071462 – Millburn, NJ
Asking Price $639,000
Selling Price $560,000 (12.4% Lowball!)
MLS# 2109190 – Elizabeth, NJ
Asking Price $479,000
Selling Price $420,000 (12.3% Lowball)
MLS# 2068426 – Bridgewater, NJ
Asking Price $1,199,900
Selling Price $1,060,000 (11.7% Lowball!)
MLS# 2075936 – North Caldwell, NJ
Asking Price $1,375,000
Selling Price $1,215,000 (11.6% Lowball!)
MLS# 2107610 – Franklin Twp, NJ
Asking Price $556,345
Selling Price $499,000 (10.3% Lowball!)
MLS# 2102931 – Florham Park, NJ
Asking Price $589,000
Selling Price $530,000 (10.0% Lowball!)
Caveat Emptor!
Grim
The Clark place it still way, way overpriced. Its 685K for a 3 bed/1bath in an OK but not great town. And it says “as-is” for in-ground oil tank. What sort of moron would buy a house with an in-ground oil tank without insurance on an as-is basis ?
[ The listing does mention another 100×100 property included in the deal, maybe that was the attaction]
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to go into the details on many of those sales. It’s been crazy around work and home with the holidays quickly approaching. I also didn’t check if those asking prices were prior reductions (a very interesting metric in my book and something I typically do).
grim
It’s especially interesting to see reductions occurring in homes on the lower end of the price range in blue-collar towns. While the RE industry has pretty much conceded the slowdown in luxury homes, they seem to be sticking to the party line that more modest homes are still flying off the shelves.
the rela estate industry will try to spin and manipulate the facts in order to keep this ponzi chugging along.
Unfortunately it is not working anymore.
BAAAAAWAAAHAHAHAHAHA
“As-Is” means walk away… If there’s an oil tank that leaked, the EPA will be there in a second.
Notice how many dormant gas stations there are in the state of NJ after they changed the law and required them to have all their tanks replaced? Most of them are still there, rotting away.
-Richie
I think everything is still overpriced. I was overjoyed to see a home listed at 459 K in a particluarly upscale section of town. A few months ago, comparable houses on the same street were listed at 499K +. But imagine my shock when I checked out this house on taxrecords.com. Had been sold in Nov 2004 for 375K !
I have been watching realtors.com for a year now, northern jersey. The number of listings has been coming down in many of the towns I am tracking (started 3 weeks ago). Have sales been picking up?
Few new entries come on the market at this time, and a number of people withdraw their houses at this time. So sales haven’t picked up. Its just the time of the year.
Listings are decreasing because homes are being withdrawn at a rather brisk pace.
Spring should be very, very interesting.
grim
Can anybody tell me what the status codes mean on gsmls
a-active
a*-attorney review
p- ?
X- ?
W-withdrawn
UC-Under contract