Consumers who bought their current home in 2007 or later, but are reselling it now, are overpricing their properties by at least 14% on average, according to Zillow, the online real estate database.
Meanwhile, sellers who bought their homes in two other time periods, “pre-boom” (before 2002) and “boom” (2002-2006), also are overpricing their properties – but not by as much.
In fact, of the three groups, those who bought during the boom have the lowest average overprice, 9% above current market value, while the pre-boom buyers-turned-sellers are nearly 12% overpriced.
"Overpricing homes causes them to stagnate on the market and keeps inventory from decreasing—not a desirable outcome for either the sellers or the market as a whole,” said Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries.
As for the post-bust group, who think they had escaped the worst of the market, they don't realize the housing recession is still in full swing, he said.
These sellers "need to break out the pencil and paper and do some serious research into what has happened to their market since they first bought their home, whether it was four years ago or six months ago," he added.
As for those who plan to sell in the next four years, an online survey Harris Interactive conducted for Zillow found some of the same dynamic working.
Of those who bought their home in the post-bust era, 17% said they use the purchase price as the primary basis for their sales price when the property goes to market. For the pre-boom buyers turned sellers this was true of only 4%, while it was true for 9% of the boom buyers turned sellers.
