The rate of bidding wars dipped as fast as your bank account during the holidays, hitting another 10-year low in December. Despite the inventory shortage and high demand, competition continues to be a rarity in the real estate process, especially during the winter months when buying usually cools. But the landscape may change soon: Experts expect that bidding wars will rise as interest rates remain low and buyers continue to get a head start on the spring buying season.
San Francisco continued to be the only market that was even moderately competitive in December. The bidding war rate there in December was 26%, down from 35% a year earlier and down from 28% in November.
“There aren’t typically very many homes for sale in San Francisco in December,” said Redfin San Francisco Market Manager Saleem Buqeileh. “Last month we saw more buyers than usual out looking for a ‘steal’ and bidding on homes, which led to multiple offer situations on some homes where all of the buyers came in below list price, rather than above.”
Competition was still rare everywhere else in the country in December, with no other market experiencing a bidding war rate higher than 17%. The bidding war rate fell to zero in Raleigh and Dallas, and hit its lowest point in at least five years in Los Angeles.
