Most of the Kensington homes sold in the Multiple Listings Service (MLS) are 3 bedrooms, so analyzed median (half sell for less, half for more) sales price trends over the past 10 years. The 2014 numbers are year-to-date; all other values are for the entire year. The green bars are the median 3 bedroom sales price by year; the blue line is a polynomial fit of the data.
Prices climbed dramatically from 2012 to 2013 – we saw the same trend in Berkeley.
This graph shows the ratio of the sales price to the original list price as a function of days on the market; Berkeley real estate sales show a similar pattern.
Most of the homes sell between 10 and 15 days on the market; that’s the result of reviewing offers after 1 or 2 open houses. Most homes sell within 21 days on the market and generally sell for over (often a lot over) the asking price.
For the first few weeks a home’s on the market, uncertainty favors the seller – buyer’s base their offer upon how many other buyers are bidding on the home.
Once a home’s been on the market 3 or 4 weeks, the uncertainty favors the buyer. They feel that if the home’s not sold, it may be overpriced. Thus homes which sell after this period tend to sell for less than the original price.
We’ve found that the best strategy for sellers is to price the home at the lower range of the likely price, and let our marketing work to get multiple offers and overbids.
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