Real estate Web sites Zillow and Trulia continue to see price cuts by home sellers in apparent efforts to attract buyers during a slower part of the year for house sales.

The listing prices of more than 25 percent of homes on the market Oct. 1 have been reduced, according to Trulia.com. In all, sellers with listings on Trulia.com have cut asking prices about $1 billion since June.

Trulia CEO Pete Flint says home sellers are facing the season of the year when home sales are typically slow, and they are hoping that by reducing their prices, the properties will move.

In a statement accompanying the release, Flint said: We are seeing the beginning of this trend in the Northeast and Western United States with discounting happening at all price points, and expect it to continue.

Here are the 10 housing markets on Trulia.com with the highest percentage of reduced-price listings in October:

  1. Memphis, Tenn. 36 percent
  2. Minneapolis, 36 percent
  3. Portland, Ore. 36 percent
  4. Indianapolis, 36 percent
  5. Baltimore, 36 percent
  6. Milwaukee, 35 percent
  7. Jacksonville, Fla., 35 percent
  8. Tucson, Ariz., 34 percent
  9. Raleigh, N.C., 33 percent
  10. Boston, Mass., 33 percent

Meanwhile, a new study from Zillow.com shows U.S. home buyers inching closer to the asking price when they buy real estate. Buyers paid a median $6,525, or 3 percent, less than the last listing price when they bought a home in August, down from $7,018, or 3.3 percent, less for homes bought in July.

Buyer power peaked in January 2009, when buyers paid 4.5 percent less than the last listing price, a median of $10,096.

Buyers continued to cut prices with 24.7 percent of all homes listed for sale on Zillow.com undergoing at least one listing price reduction from the original price - a median of 6.6 percent - as of Oct. 1, 2009.

Markets where home sellers dropped prices the most compared to the last listing price were:

  1. Vero Beach, Fla., 8.9 percent
  2. Naples, Fla., 8 percent
  3. Sarasota, Fla., 7.9 percent
  4. Panama City, Fla., 7.6 percent
  5. Daytona Beach, Fla., 7.3 percent
  6. Atlantic City, N.J., 7.2 percent
  7. Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Fla., 7 percent
  8. Morristown, Tenn, 6.9 percent
  9. Ocala, Fla., 6.5 percent
  10. Lakeland, Fla., 6.4 percent

Source: U.S. News & World Report, Luke Mullins, and Zillow.com (10/08/2009)

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