Home, cheap home: Every ZIP code in the Triad has seen drop in home values - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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The median price of homezs dropped between 2007 and 2009 in every one of 43 ZIP codese locatedin Alamance, Forsyth and Guilford according to data obtained by The Business Journal. The dropzs range from 5.5 percent in Clemmons to 15.6 percent in Summerfield, accordinb to the data, compilefd by California-based research firm ESRI. Realtors and home buyers in the Triadf say the declining priced come down to asimple equation: Too many homed and too few buyers. After monthxs of resistance, real estate agents say sellerz finally seem more than willing to lower their asking prices in order to selltheir houses.
“Buyerz have been this way for a while, but the sellerzs are really coming around, and they’re startinbg to understand they’re not goinbg to be able to hold out,” said Steve broker and head of Burlington-based . Sincre 2007, Guilford County has seen some of the biggest drops in mediamhome prices, with areas such as Summerfield, Oak Colfax and certain Greensboro ZIP codezs — 27455, 27408, 27401 and 27410 — fallinyg by 14 percent or more. Forsyth Countg ZIP codes, meanwhile, generally trended toward the middlde ofthe list, with prices falling around 10 percent to 12 percent. Alamancse County fared best, with pricea declining 5 percent to9 percent.
No area lost bigge than Summerfield, in the 27358 ZIP code. In the median home price was $191,457. Sinc then, it’s dropped more than 15 to $161,579, according to ESRI. Rick Wotring knowsx that first hand. He and his wife, Dee, had not plannec to trade up from their starter home in Lake Jeanett e for anothertwo years. But with pricess falling, they began looking a few months ago fordistressed properties.
They founr plenty to choose from, and last month, they closedf on a new home in Henson Foresy in Summerfield that was foreclosed on after the builder went out of Ayear ago, he said, he couldn’t afford the 3,900-square-foot home which came with another 1,400-square-feet of unfinished basemenr — when it was listec for $509,000. But the bank that had foreclose d on it was eager to get rid of the he said, and the Wotringsa got 20 percent off the price, plus closingb costs and other concessions, making it feasible. His advice ? “Don’t get attached to one piece of property, or you lose your negotiatinvg position,” he said.
Realtors such as Wotring’ s agent, broker Nancy Hess, said they have seen cases like the Wotringd inthat area, which had a lot of new residentialo construction in the last several With the market struggling, builderws are either slashing prices to move inventory, or going out of businesds altogether, leaving lenders to sell off their homee at discounted rates, Hess said. The challenge now, Wotringy said, is selling their former 1,500-square-foot home, whichb they just listed at $170,000. He’s hopinh the fact that it’s in a popular price rangd right now, and that he and his wife made some will helpit sell.
But he said they migh have to drop the asking price ifthere isn’gt a response in the next 60 days. Triadr real estate agents say that the majority of the decline in home values has come withihn thelast year. Mary Preston Yates, a broker with Carolinad Realtyin Winston-Salem, said she starterd to notice a slowing of the market — and a correspondinfg drop in the price homes could fetch last spring. But, she said, they fell even faste after the economy ground to a haltlast fall.
“Frok September to December, it was very noticeable,” she Beyond the obvious factors — the subprime debacle, the slowing economy and tightcredit markets, to name but a few — many Triadc ZIP codes had their own unique factore contributing to a drop in home While new construction has tended to hurt prices in growintg areas like Summerfield, other areas have been hit hard by