In October, 60.3% of home offers written by Redfin agents faced competition, little changed from a revised rate of 60.4% in September but down from a pandemic peak of 74.5% in April.
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An offer is considered part of a bidding war if a Redfin agent reported that it faced at least one competing bid. This data is subject to revision. Redfin’s bidding-war data dates back to April 2020.
The bidding-war rate has fallen from its peak in recent months amid a typical seasonal cooling in the housing market, but has begun to plateau as a second wind of homebuyer demand has fueled competition, according to Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather.
“While the housing market slowed in October, the latest homebuying demand data indicates it may be heating back up this month—a sign that bidding wars could start to tick up again,” Fairweather said. “Homebuyers who dropped out of the housing market in the spring have returned under the assumption there will be less competition. They may be surprised to discover that bidding wars are still common because so many house hunters are looking to take advantage of low mortgage rates before they rise.”
Salt Lake City had the highest bidding-war rate of the 42 U.S. metropolitan areas in this analysis, with 79.5% of offers written by Redfin agents facing competition in October. Next came Sacramento, CA at 77.1% and Indianapolis at 74.1%. San Diego and San Francisco/San Jose rounded out the top five, with bidding-war rates of 72.1% and 69.5%, respectively.
“There’s been a noticeable uptick in bidding wars during the first couple weeks of November, and we’re seeing a lot more buyers than we typically would at this time of year,” said San Diego Redfin agent Jodie Lee. “Many buyers hit pause on making offers after constantly getting outbid during the spring homebuying season, but now they’re ready to get back in the game before mortgage rates increase.”
Lee continued: “There’s still a housing shortage, which means some homes continue to receive as many as 22 offers and go for $100,000-$150,000 over list price. The best thing buyers can do is act quickly, have a fully underwritten preapproval from a good lender, and consider waiving contingencies.”
Metros must have had at least 20 offers recorded by Redfin agents in both October 2021 and September 2021 to be included in this analysis.
The table below is sorted by highest to lowest bidding-war rates in October 2021. Blank spaces in the October 2020 column represent metros for which there were fewer than 20 offers submitted by Redfin agents that month.
