Back in the day—-say early 2008 until last fall—-I wrote a little feature called “Buyer’s Market, Price Pick of the Week.” For each piece, I’d find a for-sale house that had undergone a severe price drop since being originally listed.
In the beginning, it was pretty easy to spot some real doozies. There was the Petworth rowhouse originally listed at roughly $550,000, down 22 percent. And the “Columbia Heights East,” once flooded, basement apartment down close to 30 percent. The list goes on and on.
But at a certain point, it became more challenging to locate solid price drops. People were clearly coming down to reality, and not listing their homes at ridiculous sums. Plus, I was bored with doing the feature. Both were compelling reasons to end the damn thing, and never think about it again…until this morning.
According to a new survey by Zillow, most Americans now recognize that their houses have lost value. They’re finally facing reality. Well many of them are. Not enough. But we’re getting closer:
More than 57 percent nationwide now believe their own home lost value in 2008. That’s significantly more than the 38 percent who believed their home’s value was declining in the second quarter of last year, according to a newly released survey by Zillow.
But, the survey noted, there are still some living in denial. In reality, 76 percent of all U.S. homes lost value in 2008, according to a Zillow real estate analysis. (From the Baltimore Business Journal.)