Survey: Home Prices Will Stay Flat Over Next Six Months

For anyone in the market to buy a home, there’s one question on everyone’s mind?

Will home prices continue to fall?

Home buyers may get conflicting advice.

About 46 percent of the nation’s real estate agents think home prices will stay the same over the next six months, according to a report released today from Calif.-based HomeGain. The report showed 31 percent of agents think prices will decrease, while 23 percent think prices have hit the bottom and will actually start to increase.

HomeGain surveyed more than a thousand agents across the country earlier this month.

“The vast majority of Realtors expect prices to remain the same or increase in the next six months,“ said Louis Cammarosano, general manager of HomeGain. The real estate company focuses on marketing and surveys agents quarterly to gauge what they’re seeing in the market.

In order for that to happen, though, agents are trying to convince their clients to price homes correctly.

“Buyers continue to believe that homes are overpriced and expect bargains, while a greater percentage of sellers, perhaps emboldened by stabilizing conditions, think their homes should be priced higher than their (agents) are recommending,“ Cammarosano said.

Agents who responded to the survey said they think lower inventory levels will help prices stabilize.

Only time will tell if the agents are correct. But recent sales data doesn’t show a stop in falling prices. Monthly drops, though, have been getting smaller and have recently even increased.

The median sales price of existing home sales in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area fell 19 percent in July to $143,100, compared to the previous year, according to the Florida Association of Realtors. Condominiums, whose sales rose 39 percent, saw median sales prices fall to $98,000 from $147,300 a year ago.

Even though year-long comparisons show big drops, monthly changes don’t.

The median sales price for single-family homes was $141,100 in May and $139,400 in June. Economists say it would take several more months before they can say prices have stabilized.