Facebook
X
Pinterest
Copy Link
Did you know that people keep records on bidding wars? A bidding war occurs when two or more people bid on the same property. The brokerage Redfin has been logging bidding wars since April 2020.
Its latest stats say that the number of bidding wars across the nation are declining. For example, April 2021 saw 73.1 percent of all offers faced bidding competition. This past March that dropped to 67 percent and then in April bidding wars were down to 61 percent of all offers.
Needless to say, it’s getting a bit easier for buyers to compete in this market. Many buyers just dropped out. It’s time to come back. I know, because like many Realtors I’ve lost clients who just gave up. It’s time for them to come back before they are priced out of the market, if they aren’t already.
I sold a home to a client in December, however, who refused to give up. After failing to win the bid on several homes in Utah County he calculated that it was just a half hour drive to his office in Orem and bought a home in Nephi. That house would have cost a lot more in Utah County.
The hike in interest rates is beginning to slow this crazy market. Many buyer wannabes who qualified to buy a home before the rate hikes, no longer do. As the Fed tries to quell inflation, mortgage rates will continue to rise kicking more folks out of the market and reducing bidding wars.
Folks who were waiting to take advantage of an over-heated market are now part of a 6 percent decline year over year. The market hasn’t seen that kind of decline since June 2020, Redfin says. Mortgage applications are also down 8 percent and many home sellers are dropping their prices.
