During September, a mere 11 percent of offers written by Redfin agents faced a bidding war, according to a report from the company.
Redfin said the bidding war rate was down from 41 percent a year earlier, but up slightly from the eight-year low of 10 percent in August.
“After the coolest spring home-selling season in at least eight years, homebuying competition didn’t have far to fall, but low mortgage rates ultimately drove a modest uptick in bidding wars in late summer when they typically become less common,” Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather said in a release. “With mortgage rates likely to remain near historic lows, I expect the bidding war rate to continue to level off — rather than follow its typical end-of-year descent — as 2019 comes to a close.”
According to the report, the most-competitive market in September was San Francisco, where 28 percent of offers faced a bidding war, down from 69 percent a year earlier.
In San Jose, Calif., 18 percent of offers faced competition in September, down from 83 percent a year earlier.
“More sellers are pricing their homes a little below the price they expect to sell at, which is encouraging bidding wars to drive up price,” Redfin San Jose agent Kimberly Douglas said. “In addition to teaser pricing like this, I’ve seen very aggressive price drops happening more often lately.”
Redfin said the least-competitive market in September was Miami, where just 2 percent of the offers faced competition, followed by Dallas (3.1 percent) and Austin (3.6 percent).