Median Home Prices

In Charleston, the current active market of over 9000 homes has a median list price of $250k.  However, the 1800 properties under contract have a list price of only $187k.  That disparity is far too large.  It shows that much of our market, maybe 80%, is still overpriced.  This may be primarily due to the fact that all those homeowners who bought since 2004 are upside down.  They owe more on the home than it's worth.  If they all price them correctly, they will all be short sales(the bank will have to agree to take less on them than is owed) and that will cause a pretty big ding on their credit.  They don't want to do that, so, they put it on the market at a price that will prevent it from being a short sale, but will also prevent it from getting sold.  Understand that not everthing is overpriced.  About 20% of the market is correctly priced.  Properties that have been foreclosed on and the banks are now trying to sell are usually 15-25% under market value.