Bidding wars slow despite chronic home shortage

For the fifth consecutive month, the number of bidding wars buyers are encountering in the housing market has slowed down. According to new data from Redfin, 58.9 percent of home offers written by Redfin agents in September faced competition. This is a record low for 2021. The high of the year was reached in April when 74.3 percent of all home offers from buyers had competition.

The typical cooling down of the housing market in the Fall is helping to ease the rate of competing bids on homes. Still, a sharp decline in the number of homes for sale is still keeping demand high and despite the recent decrease in bidding wars, a large number of home sellers receive at least two competing bids.

New listings have dropped by nine percent in September compared to last year.

Meanwhile, those looking to purchase a home will find conforming no-point 30-year fixed mortgage rates are averaging 2.875 percent and 15-year rates near 2.25 percent.

Do you have a question for Real Estate & Mortgage Analyst Mehran Aram? Submit your queries about a home purchase, refinance, or reverse mortgage via Aramco.biz, social media (#AramcoReport), or over the phone at (877) 700-0942 and your questions may be featured in an upcoming article.