Less Competition

Redfin, Seattle, said competition appears to be easing as homebuyers grow tired of sky-high asking prices and the housing market enters its typical seasonal slowdown. Redfin reported in August, 58.8% of home offers written by Redfin agents faced competition—a record low for 2021 and down from a revised rate of 62.1% in July and a peak of 74.3% in April. It’s also slightly lower than the August 2020 bidding-war rate of 59.4%. Redfin said while sellers continue to have the upper hand, buying a home has become slightly easier this summer as the country’s acute shortage of homes for sale is no longer intensifying and the market has undergone its typical seasonal slowdown.

Home-price growth is stabilizing following months of record gains, and measures of competition aside from the bidding-war rate are also losing steam. For example, 50% of homes sold above their list prices during the four weeks ending Sept. 5, down from a peak of 55% in July. Of the homes that went under contract during that period, 47% had an accepted offer within the first two weeks on the market, down 9 percentage points from the 2021 peak set in March. “Sellers are still pricing their homes very high, but a lot of buyers have had enough and are no longer willing to pay the huge premiums they were six months ago,” said Nicole Dege, a Redfin real estate agent in Orlando, Fla., where the bidding-war rate dropped to 57.5% in August from 78.9% in July. “Buyers are getting a bit more selective.”

Source: Redfin