Homes for sale: 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 1 very large discount

The Herald Tribune reports on a softening real estate market:

The driving force, in addition to the soft real estate market, is that "home affordability is at its lowest level since 1990," Kasriel said.

Nowhere is that more evident right at this moment than with giant volume builders such as Miami-based Lennar/US Home, which has laid out a 26-hour sales drive with discounts ranging from $20,000 to $157,000 for homes in developments stretching from northern Manatee County to North Port.

Take the four-bedroom, two-bath Grande Berkshire in Heritage Harbour near the Manatee River: it is offered at $120,000 off the $499,900 house, more than a 24 percent cut in the price.

Or the Chatham in Heron Creek, off North Sumter Boulevard in North Port, with $157,000 off the $656,900 four-bedroom, three-bath house, likewise a 24 percent drop.

The price-cutting gives consumers an unusual look at the kind of profits some builders have enjoyed during the heady days of build-it-and-they-will-buy home sales.

Many of the high-end custom builders are finding sales off 50 percent, but are riding it out with backlog orders and the profits they made during the recent record market.

Eventually the fundamentals have to come into line.The lack of affordability is a sign of a market top.