Housing slowdown impacts relocations

From MarketWatch:

Moving a mountain

Convincing job candidates to relocate can be a challenge even when the housing market is strong. But with homes in many markets around the country taking longer to sell and prices either flat or declining, employees being asked to relocate are starting to balk in greater numbers.

“If you’re in a market where prices have declined significantly, that’s a huge challenge for folks who bought at the top of the market,” said Kathy Morris, director of global consulting for Prudential Relocation.
…
Relocation experts say common reasons job candidates hesitate to uproot often has to do with people’s reluctance to leave their comfort zones, their families and their friends.

A Prudential Relocation survey on mobility trends, released in September, found that family issues were still the dominating reason employees turned down a job that would require relocation — 65% of those surveyed believed that to be a top concern. Sixty-one percent named cost-of-living and housing concerns as a top issue, while 22% said that selling the home, specifically, was a top concern.

But the timing of the survey reflects only the start of changing attitudes about many housing markets throughout the country, “While (real-estate markets) started declining in 2006, we haven’t seen a lot of the results of that yet,” Morris said.
…
Last year, some relocation companies were advising clients to institute a “loss on sale” program because of the expected market conditions, said Bonnie F. Casper, vice president of relocation for Comey & Shepherd Realtors, in Cincinnati.

“This kind of program allows transferees to accept their move without the great financial repercussions of a soft market,” she said in an e-mail interview. Such guarantees that transferees would not lose money on a home sale “had gone by the wayside because of the stellar market over the last five years.”