Report: Almost 80% of Seattle-area home offers face a bidding war
The competition for homes in Seattle remains fierce, as a recent report from the real estate brokerage Redfin found 79% of home offers in the Seattle area faced bidding wars in April, up from 74.8% in March. Seattle had the eighth-highest bidding war rate in the country.
The bidding war trend in Seattle mirrors that of the U.S. in general, as low interest rates and the increased freedom of remote work have pushed more people to look for new homes. Nationally, 72% of home offers faced competing bids, according to Redfin, up from 66.7% in March.
"Bidding wars are intensifying. In March, we were seeing three or four offers on a home. Now, we're sometimes seeing more than 20," Kristin Lopez, a Redfin agent from Boise, Idaho, said in a news 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 remainder of the year could be an interesting time for real estate trends, both in Seattle and around the country. With big tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon planning to bring employees back to the office later this year, workers in general could become less willing to move.
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2021/05/27/redfin-seattle-bidding-war-april-2021.html