Summer Market

69 new listings came on the market last week, 57 houses dropped their asking price and 26 listings went to contract. That's pretty slow, compared with earlier in the year. But the market's not quite dead - I hear that 272 Riverside Avenue, property that can be split into two lots, is going to sealed bids on Monday noon. Asking price was $3,000,000 and presumably it's going to sell for more than that.

For Sale By Owner
I saw in the paper yesterday that 21 Thornhill Road, in Riverside, sold for $665,000. The seller did it himself, by God, and saved paying a commission. That's nice, but his property was probably worth $750,000 for its land value alone. If so, then our seller saved $37,500, but lost the $47,500 extra a competent broker would have netted him. His choice, of course, but I think it was a bad one.