If you think you are seeing properties sitting on the market longer you are right and it is all segments of the market. Phillip Molnar just had an interesting piece in the Union Tribune on what he called "luxury homes" (which, in his definition, are those costing $6 million or more.) He said those are taking an average of 633 days to sell. According to a Report on Housing Molnar sites, that is up for 400 days last year. Wow! Most of the local market is more in the 30-45 day range currently which still feels long after years of much shorter days on market. The extremely high price point isn't a segment of the market in which I work, but I found it interesting because conventional wisdom has been that the really rich aren't as sensitive to the economy and tend to buy and sell properties as it aligns with their personal goals not based on interest rates since they usually pay cash. The current real estate market is a bit different.
According to Molner, "...it's true luxury buyers don't have the same concerns as average Americans - such as the price of basic goods increasing - but they are affected by wild swings in the stock market. What they are doing is watching their portfolio all the time." Luxury home sales (top 5% of the market) were down to their lowest level in more than a decade according to a Redfin study that looked at data from February to April so it looks like Molner's article is correct. In San Diego pending luxury sales were down 8.6 percent year over year according to the Redfin study. I guess the rich are dealing with the same issues as the rest of us, just on a larger scale.
