Start by looking at AWC and pending by the zipcode. Since yours is between 3,000 and 3,100 SF, I looked at 2,900 to 3,200 SF with 3 car garages. There were two pendings, no AWC. If the $399k listing is over 3,200 sf, I missed it.

I’m not very familiar with the Westwing area. It looks like the three main builders of competing product are Pulte, Engle and Beazer. Try searching within your zip code by your builder and also by Westwing to find all the active and pending competition.

If there is an AWC in Westwing listed at $399k, that’s the house I would look at most closely in setting my price. If it is AWC, your agent should be able to get you in.

I empathize because I have a starter home in Goodyear listed now. This is a completely different market, but the problem is the same. It’s been on the market for 30 days and it’s listed almost 5 percent lower than the next lowest house of this model. There are few buyers out looking, even at the lower price.

Until the mortgage market stabilizes and first-time buyers can get back in, the market is frozen. To make matters worse, the jumbo mortgage situation is hurting the sellers from California and other high-priced markets that might want to buy your house. No one can buy their houses, so they can’t buy yours.

It’s a tough time to sell, but in my opinion things will get worse before they get better. We sellers are all in the same place. Do we cut prices and offer incentives to sell, even if it means taking a loss? Or, do we rent and be prepared to wait 5 years?

It’s helpful to look at what’s for sale, but that’s not really indicative of the current market value. One of the listings you found is a foreclosure but is not clearly identified as such. One of the houses I found has been listed for just under 30 days, the rest have been listed for much longer times. Have your agent click the historical archive link in the listings to see how a couple of the sellers have followed the market down.

When you look at AWC and pending listings, you get a much better picture of what is (not) happening. In the entire 85383 zip code, there are only two houses in that square footage and price range (under $500k) with three car garages that are AWC or pending. One was listed at $335k and one was listed at $369.9k. Only one went into escrow in the last 4 weeks (post mortgage meltdown). Both houses are inferior to yours, but that is unimportant. What’s important is that there are few if any active buyers for your product in your price range.

The listing agents are not bothering to call you back because foreclosure listers rarely call you back and the other agents have long since given up on selling these houses at these prices. If they call you back and you tell them you are pricing yours for sale, ask them how many showings they have had in the last 30 days. No showings confirms there are no buyers.

Your asking rent of $1,685 is in line with other asking rents in the area that are on the MLS. However, some of them have been on the market for well over 60 days. If this were my property, I would call on all the “for rent” signs in the area or at least check the web sites of the property management companies that have signs on competing properties.

If I wanted to keep this house through the downturn, I would drop my rent 10 percent below the competition and market the heck out of it. Otherwise, I would consider listing the house for sale 5 percent below the competing listings and offer some closing cost assistance to get it sold.

Best of luck to you with this one.