The most competitive housing market in the country based on bidding wars is a state capital in the Mid-Atlantic region – MarketWatch
The housing market, nationwide, may be less competitive than it was just a few months ago. In some parts of the U.S., though, buyers aren’t out of the woods when it comes to encountering competing offers when they put a bid on a for-sale property.
In November, just 59.5% of offers presented by Redfin
RDFN,
+1.61%
agents faced competition, the real-estate brokerage said in a new report. That’s down from the pandemic peak of 74.6% in April, and represents the lowest level of competition since December of last year.
Nevertheless, the frequency of bidding wars remained high for late fall and early winter, said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. “For this time of year, there’s actually quite a lot of demand,” Fairweather said, adding that fewer homeowners generally list their properties in December.
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“Most buyers who may be out there are looking at homes that are the leftovers from earlier this year, and those are the kinds of homes that won’t really attract a bidding war,” she said.
Some markets continue to see a very high rate of bidding wars, even as competition at a national level has dissipated with the advent of cooler weather. Richmond, Va., recorded the highest percentage of offers facing competition, with 80% of the offers presented by Redfin agents effectively entering into a bidding war. That was up from nearly 70% of offers in the previous month.
Salt Lake City, Utah, had the second highest rate of bidding wars at nearly 74%, followed by San Diego, Honolulu and Dallas.
A separate competitiveness ranking from Redfin, which incorporates data on bidding wars and the amount of time properties spend on the market, showed that the three most competitive metro areas nationwide for housing were Aurora, Colo.; Fremont, Calif.; and Spokane, Wash.
“‘This is emblematic of where we’re at in this phase of migration.’”
What all of these markets have in common, Fairweather said, is that they are satellite cities, rather than major metropolitan areas.
“This is emblematic of where we’re at in this phase of migration,” she said. “At the beginning of the pandemic, everybody just wanted space and was moving out to more rural areas, but now that things are reopening these …….