Today's Open House Experience.

I went to two open houses today in my neck of Bergen County, NJ. The first house was a standard 8/4/2 colonial. Asking price is $865,000. This is the first week the house is on the market, and the realtor said that the response has been very strong. That said, 30 minutes prior to the close of the open house, I was only the fifth person to sign in. The house is $200,000 overpriced in my opinion. The second house I went to see was for an asking price of $890,000. This house had already been reduce by about $50,000, but still overpriced by at least $200,000 in my opinion. There were 3 Realtors greeting me at the house. I could sense the desperation in their eyes. One of the realtors was a real old timer, obviously a very experienced realtor. I asked him how the market is doing, and he told me that it has definitely softened. All the pros know that this is a cyclical business. There is no "new economy" in real estate of never ending booms. The larger the preceding boom, the greater the ensuing bust. Since this is really a slow season in real estate, we won't know for sure until the spring whether this is just a seasonal slowdown, or something more foreboding.