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Bidding wars are still more common than a year ago, but economists are starting to notice the competition lessen somewhat. As more housing inventory gradually enters the market, buyers may face some relief from the intense bidding wars that have sent home prices surging in recent months.
In June, 65% of home offers written by Redfin real estate agents faced competition, which is down from 72.1% in May and 74.1% in April, Redfin reports. But multiple offer situations are still higher than a year ago when the bidding rate stood at 56.8%.
On average, a home sold in May had five offers, according to the REALTORS® Confidence Index Report, a survey of thousands of real estate pros’ transactions.
But housing experts say buyer fatigue may be setting in. After losing out on a bidding war or getting priced out, some home buyers may be waiting for the market to ease before jumping back in.
“The first half of this year was red hot—it was almost impossible to get an offer accepted,” says Laura Sechrist Molenda, a real estate professional with Redfin in Southern California. “Two of my buyers just had their offers accepted because the sellers’ first buyers backed out. The market is still competitive, but buyers are more trepidatious than they were at the start of 2021 and less willing to pull out every stop in order to win.”
The housing market traditionally starts to ease as it heads later into the summer and into the fall. But real estate has hardly followed any historical normalcy over the past year since the pandemic.
The markets with the highest bidding war rates in June—of the 52 markets tracked—were:
- Sarasota, Fla.: 87% of offers faced a bidding war
- Charleston, S.C.: 82.9%
- Reno, Nev.: 80%
- Charlotte, N.C.: 78.9%
- Kansas City, Mo.: 78.6%
- Spokane, Wash.: 78%
- Sacramento, Calif.: 77.4%
- Grand Rapids, Mich.: 76.9%
- Raleigh, N.C.: 75.7%
- Greenville, S.C.: 73.9%