Redfin’s monthly report on demand for home sales in the country’s biggest metro areas found the prevalence of multiple offers on residential properties stayed steady into December, a month that typically sees a significant drop-off in buyer interest pre-pandemic.
Nation-wide, 59.6 percent of offers written by a Redfin agent met with at least one competing offer last month, down from 61.3 percent in November. However, it’s up from 54 percent in December 2020 and far above where the figure typically before the pandemic. Just 9.4 percent of offers written by Redfin agents in December 2019 met with a competing offer, down from 12 percent in November of that year and 10.1 percent in December 2018.
Across the country, pricier homes attracted more offers. Nearly two-thirds of offers for homes priced between $800,000 and $1 million faced bidding wars in December, according to the Redfin report, the highest share of any component of the market. Next came homes in the $1 million to $1.5 million range (62 percent), followed by homes priced over $1.5 million (61.7 percent). One explanation, the Redfin report suggests, could be the steady demand for vacation homes.
More than 55 percent of offers for homes priced between $200,000 and $800,000 faced multiple offers, Redfin said. Townhouses were the most competitive property type, with 62 percent of offers facing competition, followed by single-family homes, at 61.3 percent and condominiums at 53.3 percent, which Redfin’s researchers blamed on buyers priced out of single-family homes moving their buying focus to typically-cheaper townhouses.
Nationally, Salt Lake City had the highest bidding-war rate of the 37 U.S. metropolitan areas in this analysis, with 74 percent of offers written by Redfin agents facing competition in December. Next came Tucson, Arizona at 73.1 percent and San Diego at 71.1 percent. Virginia Beach, Virginia and Seattle rounded out the top five, with bidding-war rates of 70.6 percent and 70 percent, respectively. The survey did not list any Connecticut metros, but ranked Boston 13th and New York City 23rd.
“Buyers should anticipate that they may not win a house until their sixth or seventh bid. If you’re the type of person who falls in love with a house, this is not your market,” New York City Redfin agent Candace Evans was quoted as saying in the report. “If you show a house to 10 buyers, you’ll probably get eight offers. An agent on my team just put a home in the Bronx on the market and started receiving offers even though there hadn’t been a single open house or tour yet. The house ultimately received over 10 offers and went for well above the asking price.”
