While the number of homes for sale receiving multiple offers reached a 12-month low in December, buyers are still facing plenty of competition in the market, Redfin said.
Based on preliminary data, 59.6% of home offers written by the company's agents faced bidding wars in December down from a revised rate of 61.3%
While bidding wars have fallen from their peak during the pandemic, 74.6% in April 2021, the inventory shortage is still driving competition for the homes that are for sale.
Meanwhile, home price growth is
"Buyers should anticipate that they may not win a house until their sixth or seventh bid," Candace Evans, a Redfin team manager in New York, said in a press release. "If you're the type of person who falls in love with a house, this is not your market."
Higher price tiers were more competitive. A 64.6% share of homes listed between $800,000 and $1 million received multiple bids. Of homes between $1 million and $1.5 million, 62% received more than one offer, while that was the case for 61.7% of properties prices above $1.5 million.
Competition at the upper end of the market is partially attributed to increased interest in pricey vacation homes, Redfin said. However, future bidding wars on vacation homes could be affected by the Federal Housing Finance Agency's imposition of between 112.5 and 387.5 basis points in
The FHFA also increased the upfront fee for higher balance loans by 25 bps to 75 bps.
On the other hand, the
At the lower end of the scale, more than 55% of homes priced between $200,000 and $800,000 faced bidding wars.
Of the 37 markets analyzed by Redfin, five had multiple offer rates of 70% or higher: Salt Lake City, 74%; Tucson, Arizona, 73.1%; San Diego, 71.1%; Virginia Beach, Virginia, 70.6%; and Seattle, 70%.
