About three-quarters (72 percent) of home offers written by Redfin agents in April faced competition, up from 66.7 percent in March and from 44.9 percent a year ago, according to a recent Redfin report. The report notes the April 2020 bidding-war rate was affected by pandemic stay-at-home orders.
April 2021 is 12th straight month that more than half of home offers met competition. And there are no signs that the market will slow down anytime soon, according to Redfin Real Estate Agent Kristin Lopez in Boise, Idaho.
“Bidding wars are intensifying. In March, we were seeing three or four offers on a home. Now, we’re sometimes seeing more than 20,” Lopez said in a release. “The homes for sale today are high-quality, desirable homes, a dynamic that’s fueling more competition. This is a contrast from the winter, when most properties coming on the market were bottom-of-the-barrel homes. The difference is that today’s sellers are folks who want to sell, whereas many sellers back in the winter had to sell and didn’t have time to do any upgrades.”
Salt Lake City had the highest April bidding-war rate of the metro areas in Redfin’s report, with 83.5 percent of offers written by Redfin agents facing competition. Next came San Diego and Spokane, Wash., both at 83.3 percent. Boise, Idaho, and Phoenix rounded out the top five, with bidding-war rates of 81.8 percent and 80.5 percent, respectively.
“Cash offers are on the rise in Boise, which means buyers without deep pockets are frequently getting outbid,” Lopez said. “Cash is on the rise in part because there are more investors in the market, but also because there are a lot of families moving here from more expensive parts of the country. Most buyers I work with are from out of state, and many of them have the cash to compete because they just sold their home in California or Seattle.”