Research Idaho Home Builders

Changing markets call for re-evaluating marketing plans, pricing and motivation. I see some things lately with pricing on homes for sale in Boise that simply don't make sense to me.

Here is something that I see happening all the time lately with Boise homes for sale:  An existing home comes on the market, I look up other comparable homes or the same model home and it is also available in new construction.  The new construction home is priced less than the existing home.  To make matters worse (for existing home sellers anyway) builders of the new construction homes are slashing prices (even if only temporarily), buying down points, and giving upgrades and incentives. My question to you is this: logically does it make sense to price an existing home over the price of the same home that has never been lived in?  If there are 8 homes on the market that are the same floorplan which one do you think will sell first? Some may argue that the existing homes have the 'kinks out' or they are fully fenced and have full landscaping.  Some sellers will claim that their home is 'better' or that it is in a more 'desireable location.'   Maybe.  But, most of the time none of this matters.  Most of the time people will take a new home over an existing home despite having to put in their own fence or yard.  Most of the time the exisitng home isn't as much better as the seller thinks it is.  Most of the time the location isn't so much better that it  justifies thousands of dollars more in a purchase price.  Most of the time it is best price that wins the sale. 

Another thing that I see happening all the time lately with Boise homes for sale are active homes which are priced significantly higher than the sold comps.  Days on market for the sold comps are pretty long and original asking price is somewhere around the ballpark of what sitting active comps are.  Prices were reduced and the home eventually sold while the actives still sit there active, and priced higher.  Now, my question in this instance is this: why are homes being priced based on comparable actives and not on comparable solds?  If the sold comps show one thing and the active comps show another isn't it logical that eventually the active homes will have to lower their prices to meet market demand and sell closer to the sold comps?  What, then, is the purpose of pricing a home based on an active comparable that specifically is telling you that it will not sell at that price, that you will have to reduce the price, take less than asking price and lose time and money in the long run while it will sit on the market?  Does it not make more sense to price it where it is going to sell in the first place (sold comps), be priced competitively (below other actives which are priced too high anway) and get the home sold quickly so that you can move on to different things?