Redfin reports that 11% of offers nationally written by Redfin agents faced a bidding war [1]in September, which is down from 41% last year but an increase from the eight-year low of 10% in August.
The bidding war rate over the past four years has averaged a 0.8 point drop from August to September.
Additionally, Redfin says seasonal patterns of homebuying competition from 2013-2018 shows bidding wars falls by an average of 15 percentage points from March to September. The release states the seasonal decline has been “far less pronounced,”and just fell 4 points during the same period.
“After the coolest spring home-selling season in at least eight years, homebuying competition didn’t have far to fall, but low mortgage rates ultimately drove a modest uptick in bidding wars in late summer when they typically become less common,” said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. “With mortgage rates likely to remain near historic lows, I expect the bidding war rate to continue to level off—rather than follow its typical end-of-year descent—as 2019 comes to a close.”
San Francisco, California, was the most competitive metro in the nation as 28% of offers facing bidding wars in September—down 69% from last year. San Jose, California, saw 18% of offers facing competition last month, which is a steep decline from 83% last year.
“More sellers are pricing their homes a little below the price they expect to sell at, which is encouraging bidding wars to drive up price,” said Redfin San Jose agent Kimberly Douglas. “In addition to teaser pricing like this, I’ve seen very aggressive price drops happening more often lately.”
Las Vegas and Phoenix, Arizona, were tied for the second-most competitive metros with 21% of offers facing competition. No other metro saw more than one in five offers face competition in September.
Miami, Florida, was the least competitive market with 2% of submitted offers facing competition. Dallas (3.1%) and Austin (3.6%) were the second and third-least competitive markets.