The Home Team - choosing an agent to sell one's home

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, June, 2001 by Elizabeth Razzi

Take San Francisco, for example. Case Shiller Weiss, an economic-consulting firm, reports that home prices there jumped more than 30% between the end of 1999 and the end of 2000. The expected increase between this April and April 2002 is a relatively modest 8.8%.

Robert Shiller, an economics professor at Yale University and a principal at Case Shiller Weiss, also expects a "substantial weakening" for Boston, which has been one of the strongest markets on the East Coast. After rising 16.4% last year, home prices are projected to increase 6.2% through April 2002.

The slowdown in price appreciation will be less dramatic in Phoenix because businesses continue to flock to the area. Prices rose 6.1% last year. Case Shiller Weiss predicts 4.5% growth through April '02. Chicago, too, will see a decline from last year's 8% price increase. Shiller predicts 4.6% through April '02.

In the 23 metro areas Case Shiller Weiss survey, prices will likely increase an average of 4% through April '02. Nashville will pull the average down. Prices grew only 1.1% last year, and will likely decline 1.9% through April '02, due to an oversupply of newly built homes.

Shiller also thinks the end may be near for price hikes in San Francisco. By this time next year, he thinks prices could be heading downhill. "These bubbles don't burst quickly," says Shiller. When prices start to soften, homeowners who aren't forced to move try to wait out the downturn, and the number of home sales falls. But that could drag out the pain. "I could see San Francisco sliding for years," he says,

Kiplinger.com

Do it yourself? With the Internet, buying or selling a home without an agent should be easier. Is it?