Owners pay a price for US luxury homes that take longer to sell

New York

LUXURY homes in the US are not selling as fast as they used to, and their owners are paying a price for the slowness.

Last year, 72 per cent of the most-expensive properties in the US took longer than 180 days to sell, a sharp jump from 2015, when 59 per cent of homes lingered for that long, according to a report released on Wednesday by Concierge Auctions.

That extra time means lost money. When those languishing homes found buyers, they did so for only 71 per cent of the original asking price.

Owners that sold in less than six months got 93 per cent of what they sought.

"Every day a luxury property is on the market, it depreciates in value," Concierge said in its report, which reviewed the 10 priciest completed transactions in 40 markets across the country.

Concierge, a luxury-auction company that promises to close deals within 90 days, has a vested interest in promoting the need for speed.

But the dollars lost when a home sits unsold would make any owner take notice.

In Miami, homes that spent more than 180 days on the market last year traded for 68 per cent of the original listed price, while in Atlanta, it was 65 per cent.

In Westchester County, just north of New York City, those sellers got 62 per cent of what they sought. BLOOMBERG