In a conversation with a fellow realtor the other day about Big Bear lakefront real estate, we both seemed to notice that sellers seem to be listing their homes for sale at more realistic prices lately. Like most hunches, this was based primarly on anecdotal evidence. I wondered if there was a way to corroborate this perception by using the Big Bear MLS data.
Here's what I came up with:
The average price per square foot of currently listed Big Bear lakefronts is $414. Yet the same price measure for lakefronts that have sold so far this year is only $373. That is a $41 or 10% difference.
The median price per square foot of current Big Bear lakefront homes for sale is $390 while for solds it is $384. This $6 represents a difference of just 1.5%.
The difference - or "disconnect" - between what Big Bear lakefront sellers are asking and what buyers are willing to pay seems very small. A few years ago, I would bet that difference would have been much greater. Unfortunately, there is no way to go back in the Big Bear MLS and see the current listings at that given point in time. But I am certain that the disconnect would haven been much, much larger.
Over the past few years, it seems that sellers have struggled to accept the dramatic market declines that have taken place in the Big Bear lakefront real estate market. Being human, and thus having an aversion to loss, many sellers oftentimes held out hope that their particular property might be immune to the overall decline in values. Recently, it seems that a greater sense of acceptance has taken hold, resulting in sellers more often listing at closer to market value prices.
I look forward to tracking this "disconnect" measure in the future. Yes, it is flawed as most other price measures are. But it does provide a number in which we might determine how close buyers and sellers are in their perceptions of Big Bear lakefront home values.