Buyer’s Market
The “softening” of the real estate market spells welcome relief for buyers used to paying through the nose for a shack. But there are still some things you need to know to buy—or sell—your home right now.
Jane Roper and her husband, Alastair, weren’t exactly planning on going house-hunting in the fall. Back then, they were sitting pretty in a rented apartment in West Medford while the winds of Katrina were lashing Louisiana, gas prices were skyrocketing, and consumer confidence was plunging. Not exactly the best time to be looking for a house. And not the best time for the landlord to come and tell them he might be selling—and, by the way, not to slam the door on their way out.
Rather than go through the hassle of finding another apartment and throwing away more money on rent, the 31-year-old ad copywriter and novelist and 32-year-old musician decided it was time to buy. “It was kind of a good kick in the pants for us,” Jane Roper now says. That kick, however, became more like a hearty pat on the back when they started looking at properties and realized there were benefits to being alone in the market. “Nothing was moving. Things were just dead,” Roper says. “We saw houses that would drop $10,000 per week just waiting for buyers.”
The young couple found exactly what they were looking for in a single-family Dutch colonial on the Medford/Somerville line. Not only did the house have a full yard and an attractive, open layout; it was just a 15-minute walk from the coffee shops and clubs of Davis Square. Originally listed at $399,000, the house had dropped in price not once, but twice by the time they looked at it, first to $379,000 and then to $369,000. That was still a stretch—but what did they have to lose?
“Our Realtor was, like, ‘I wouldn’t offer anything less than $10,000 below the asking price,’” says Roper. “We kind of held our breath and made a really low offer.” After a round of haggling, the couple signed papers in January for $348,500—a savings of more than $50,000 below the original asking price. “We felt like we got a really good deal,” Roper says. “We were psyched.” In the end, in fact, it was their real estate agent who they felt sorry for. “She was kind of lost. She had just become used to seeing everything go up, up, up, and she wasn’t sure how to coach us. She was, like, ‘I’m a stranger in a strange land. Everything’s changing.’”
