It has been 6 years since the end of the Great Recession. During which, the economy has slowly recovered. In 2008 and 2009, houses were being sold out of necessity. We saw huge spreads between asking price and sales price. As the economy recovered, frictional costs lowered, and transactions came about for different reasons, the data shows the spread decreasing across the nation. The implication here is that people are willing to wait for a fair price, especially in the busy summer months. On the other side of the transaction, the sellers are getting back to negotiating and giving tighter discounts on the final price tag.
January 20, 2015