Bidding wars are back, agents report growing competition
In a January survey, real estate company, Redfin, reported agents faced competition on over 58 percent of their offers. This is an increase of from just under 53 percent in December but way below the high of 70 percent which happened last year. Seeing an increase in January is not a surprise as, typically, as many buyers wait until after the holidays to make offers.
We expect to see competition with offers throughout 2014 as the number of buyers continues to rise and inventory of available properties lags, especially here in the Sacramento housing market. At the same time our market is moving towards a greater balance between buyers and sellers which will prevent the bidding wars which we experienced in 2013. Houses which show well and are priced competitively will generally attract multiple offers. This is nothing new!
Here are some highlights from the January survey by Redfin:
- 22 percent of homes in the survey reported selling for more than the asking price.
- San Jose and San Francisco were the only markets in the survey where the average home sold for more than the asking price. In San Francisco half of all homes sold in January had prices in excess of asking with the average 2.1 percent premium. San Jose had over 53 percent sell for more than asking and they received a 2.9 percent premium.
- Redfin reported an increase in all cash offers of 1 percent to 8.8 percent in January.
One nice trend we are seeing is an increase in the number of clients who want to trade up. They have lived in their homes for several years, weathered through some difficult time and now want to move to a larger home and/or one in a different location. This is a great sign our housing market is improving. Now if we can get the lenders…which remains another story.
