Real estate discounts to asking price shrink slightly

According to July's Zillow Real Estate Market Reports, home buyers paid an average of $7,039 less than the asking price on homes.

That's a smaller discount than they received in June, when the average home sold for $7,630 less than the asking price. In percentage terms, the discounts were 3.3% and 3.5% in June and July, respectively.

"The strong summer selling season in 2009 has led to a decreasing difference between the last listing price and final sale price, but most buyers are still getting some additional discount at selling time," said Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries in a story at RISMedia. "Overall, buyers are finding favorable conditions for negotiating prices, and now can be a good time to buy, provided homebuyers are financially prepared with healthy down payments and intend to stay in their home for a minimum of five to seven years."