In July, 60% of home offers written by Redfin agents faced competition, down from a revised rate of 66.5% in June and a pandemic peak of 74% in April, according to a new report from Redfin, the technology-powered real estate brokerage.
While July's bidding-war rate was the lowest since January, it was still higher than the nearly 58% bidding-war rate seen in July 2020, when the housing market was recovering following a shutdown caused by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
Homebuying conditions have been improving this summer following months of fierce competition and soaring prices that were driven by an intensifying housing shortage, a pandemic moving spree made possible by remote work and historically low mortgage rates. Home prices are stabilizing amid an increase in housing supply, which gives buyers more options to choose from and reduces competition. It's also typical for competition to ease during the summer following the spring homebuying season.
"Competition has started to slow in the last three weeks," said Scott Mercer, a Redfin real estate agent in Sacramento, Calif. “We're now seeing five to eight offers on homes instead of 25, and they're coming in $5,000 to $10,000 above the listing price instead of $50,000 to $60,000.”
He added that buyers are pushing back. “They've even started including appraisal contingencies again and making requests for repairs — things that were pretty much unheard of last year," Mercer said.
Fort Collins, Colo. — a college town and the state's fourth-most-populous city — had the highest bidding-war rate of the 47 U.S. metropolitan areas in the Redfin analysis, with 77.3% of offers written by Redfin agents facing competition in July. Orlando, Fla., was second at 77%, and Nashville, Tenn., was third at 74.6%. Honolulu, Hawaii, and Colorado Springs, Colo., rounded out the top five, with bidding-war rates of 74.1% and 73.2%, respectively.
Sacramento was sixth, with a bidding-war rate of 72.9%, down from 77.2% in June.
To view the full report, including charts and methodology, click here.
