Quick Look At Luxury Homes - Sales Continue To Drop

In 2010, there were 18 sales of single family residential homes with a closing price of one million dollars or more.

Whether or not you consider that a good number or a bad number may depend upon other factors.  On one hand, that is 1.5 sales every month of luxury homes in Louisville, so it’s not as if the market has totally dried up. And with current lending regulations making high value properties harder and harder to buy, maybe 1.5 sales per month is workable for a mid-west city like Louisville.

On the other hand, there are currently 115 homes for sale in the Greater Louisville market that have an asking price of $1,000,000 or more, with the most expensive asking price sitting at $6,875,000.  If we do a little math, and who doesn’t love doing math, we can calculate how long it will take to sell every single last million dollar home in Louisville, if no new listings come on the market, which I know isn’t likely.  But play along anyway!

If we sell today’s inventory at last year’s sales pace, that means that we will sell 18 homes every year.  If we have 115 homes to sell, then it will take only 6.39 years to sell every Louisville luxury home!  It makes you wonder why Realtors sign twelve month, or even six month, listing contracts with high end homes, the odds of selling them are not great.

But wait, I hear you say, what about 2009?  Or 2008?  Was 2010 a normal year compared to previous years, was it up or down?  In 2008, the same area sold 36 homes valued at $1,000,000 or more.  And in 2009 that number had dropped to 25 closings.

Wow, the more I look, the harder it becomes to spin this as anything but bad news for those home owners who are currently trying to sell their high end homes.  There simply aren’t enough buyers in the current market to make selling a luxury home anything other than a long, laborious and likely painful experience.  Not only are there not many buyers, but it appears that of the homes that do sell, home owners are taking on average between a 10 and 15% price discount from their asking price.  How’s that for a kick in the pants, as a high value home seller, you are looking at accepting an offer that is at least $100,000 less than your asking price.

Having said all of that, I am certainly not above trying my hand at selling luxury homes in Louisville.  If you would like to see my marketing plan for a successful sale, please feel free to contact me right away.

To learn more about Louisville real estate and data analysis of Louisville homes for sale, visit http://www.GregFly.com where Greg Fleischaker breaks down weekly sales data for the city as well as many surrounding neighborhoods, such as Anchorage, Prospect, St. Matthews, the Highlands and Crescent Hill, to help buyers and sellers prepare themselves for an upcoming real estate transaction.