63.4% of Redfin Offers Faced Competition in March, Compared with 73.4% Last Year
As the spring home-buying season kicked off, bidding wars again rose from the winter months. In March, 63.4 percent of offers written by Redfin agents across 19 markets faced competition from other buyers, up from 58.7 percent in February. This spring’s escalation in competition hasn’t kept pace with 2013, when the bidding war rate peaked at 73.4 percent in March, but the housing market is still tough for buyers in many markets. In fact, some markets, including Seattle, Portland and Denver, are likely to see fiercer competition than last year, and a new Redfin analysis shows that more than half of all existing home inventory is unlikely to be listed for sale any time soon.
According to Redfin agent Minni MacFarlane in Orange County, Calif., “Competition can still get intense, but because prices have risen so much, my clients and I try to be more discerning about how far we should go to win a home. The past two years we’d compete against people camping out in their cars or entering lotteries to win new homes. This year, a bidding war is more likely to drive the price of a home higher than it’s worth competing for, and I think it will be easier for us to walk away from a situation like that.”
Other data highlights:
Multiple Offers:
Price Escalations:
Competitive Strategies:
Washington, D.C., Redfin agent Tom Lewis told us, “Buyers are getting frustrated by the competition. I try to help my clients stay calm and keep things in perspective when they get into a bidding war, because once you’ve already made an offer, it can be tempting to become overly aggressive. But in my experience, patience pays off. The right home is always out there, and it doesn’t need to come with regrets.”
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* Note: Redfin publishes its Bidding Wars report on a quarterly basis. Our next Bidding War report will be released in July.
