Charm Pricing as a Signal of Listing Price Precision

Abstract

Housing listing prices serve as sellers' initial offers in the negotiation process and both the magnitude and the design of listing prices may convey information about sellers' reservation prices. Sellers frequently offer their properties for sale at listing prices that are just below some round price (e.g., $199,900 instead of $200,000). Some researchers have dubbed this strategy "charm pricing." Previous studies of the impact of charm listing prices on transaction prices provide mixed results, suggesting that the ramifications of the charm pricing strategy are not yet fully understood. This paper presents an empirical investigation of the potential role of charm pricing as a signal of listing price precision or "firmness." The findings indicate that transactions with charm listing prices exhibit significantly smaller discounts than transactions that use non-charm listing prices.