Happy New Year! Where do you stand on the great home buyer/seller divide?

I hope 2012 is a great new year for us all! To start the new year off right, here's an article about a study of the divide in expectations between home buyers and sellers. It appeared in today's L.A. Times; the title should link but if not click here. The article starts out this way:

"Where do you side in the great real estate buy-sell divide of 2012? If you're a homeowner considering selling sometime in the new year, are you apprehensive that you won't get the price you need or want, and therefore it's possible you won't even try to sell? If you're a buyer, do you agree that with 30-year fixed mortgage rates now below 4% and home prices near cyclical bottom in many areas, 2012 offers extraordinary opportunities, even if listings are fewer than you might prefer?"  Boy, that certainly hits the nail on the head.  In my experience, the sellers' sentiment is extremely common.

The article also states, "Many owners "have not adjusted their price expectations downward" to keep pace with local declines in property values after the mortgage bust." I'll say.  But in fairness, many owners can't go down much on price without being upside-down, either.

And here's a final take that I'm seeing more and more of: "...agents sometimes walk away from unreasonable listing price demands, but they also use a technique that seeks to bridge the seller-buyer divide: pre-authorized price reduction clauses in the listing contract that ratchet down the asking number."

From Sunday's L.A. Times: Read the second part of the headline first. Home prices soar (what?) AND monthly payments are more affordable

Sunday's L.A. times had a syndicated column by Lew Sichelman entitled Home prices soar in some areas as buyers opt for more expensive properties.  Lower mortgage rates are making monthly payments more affordable.  Does it seem that those are two different subjects to you? Well, the first part of the article says,

"[Prices] didn't just rise, though. They shot up by double digits, as much as 54.5% in Kansas City [Kansas City? Really?], almost 39% in Detroit and nearly 28% in Indianapolis from the second quarter last year, according to a survey of the nation's 32 largest metro areas by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Of course, house prices didn't really soar that much in a year's time. What's far more likely is that people in those places and several others bought more than the usual number of expensive properties in the April-May-June period." Okay, that explains it.  
The article then switches horses in mid-stream and discusses low interest rates. 
One consultant states, "Buyers also shouldn't worry about whether prices will continue to fall... because mortgage rates have only one way to go, which is up. Even a small jump in rates will wipe out any savings buyers might achieve by waiting for prices to drop further." And here's an interesting mathmatical take-away: " If prices remain flat and rates rise a full percentage point, to 5.5% from 4.5%, the same $200,000 house will cost 12% more each month to own, Yamano said. And if rates should spring up 2 percentage points, to 6.5%, your mortgage payment would jump 25%."  I don't think anybody needs to worry about interest rates rising today, but the article is correct: they have no place to go but up, and I think it's a good idea for would-be buyers AND sellers to be mindful of this.