Today there are 37 homes on the market in Morris Plains and 7 have gone under contract.  That is a market absorption rate of about 6 months.  Not a great number but not  bad either.  It is an average market.   The  average home price was 425 and those homes that sold went for about 97 percent of their asking price.  

Housing is a commodity and like any commodity the values go up and down with the market.  Check the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. Economics 101 page 1 Supply and Demand.   When supply is tight and demand is high prices go up, when demand and is down and supply is up prices go down. 

Many sellers still fine it hard to understand this.  It is because there is a personal attachment to the house/commodity.   Many sellers make the mistake of projecting their  lifestyle or taste to the buyer.   A perfect example recently I was when speaking to a client about selling their home.  When I mentioned that they had a very nice home in a great location but the fact that they did not have a dishwasher may deture  many buyers.  (if it did not have a dishwasher you can imagine what the rest of the kitchen looked like.  plus if  the bathrooms where any older they would have been outside).  The client’s response to this was that it has been good enough for them all these years and is should be good enough for a buyer.  Yea this is fine for two people that use a dish a day but not for a family of 5. 

The attitude by sellers that because the house down the street that is identical to theirs but had a new kitchen and new baths sold for “X” we should get  “X” plus because we have a bigger lot or better trees.  This attitude is hard to combat. 

Although things are getting better buyers still  own this market.  There is no doubt about it.  A well priced, updated clean and well kept home will sell at a good value.  One that isn’t  will not.  Value is the great equalizer.  My grandfather worked in the agriculture business and among other things sold animal feed.  Grandpa would take me up on his knee when I was little and he would say, “Bobby remember when you sell oats sell the best oats you can at the best price you can get.  If you want to try to sell used oats people won’t pay Sh#t for them.  You can’t get the same price for used oats as you would for new, it is the same with houses.

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