Sellers' Market For Homes Leading To Bidding Wars, Multiple Offers, Fast Sales
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Put another item on the pandemic shortage list. It started with toilet paper, then beef, then lumber, cars, and now homes. That's right, homes are in short supply!
"It's the most amazing real estate market that I've ever been associated with, and I've been doing this for a long time,"says the CEO and Chairman of Howard Hanna Real Estate Howard 'Hoddy' Hanna.
He says there are a number of factors driving the market, "The demand been at all time high, interest rates at an all-time low. And just a shortage of inventory."
Families have emerged from the pandemic lockdown wanting more space and contractors can't build new homes fast enough. Hanna says, "You haven't had a lot of inventory coming into the market for a 10-year period since the recession."
That, coupled with millennials now wanted out of the cooped-up lifestyle of apartment living and the usual 90-day supply of homes is down to , "Roughly, a 38 day supply of housing, which means if no other homes came on the market, and the inventory of sales continued at the pace has been going last six months, there'll be no more houses for sale in in late June."
Hanna says right now, when someone puts their home on the market, often before the listing even goes public, the offers start rolling in and they are often at or above the asking price. "It is definitely a seller's market."
Agents for Howard Hanna are often finding themselves in bidding wars.
Hoddy had one agent that on a recent weekend, "lost out in four bidding battles but won the fifth and so they felt like they had won the lottery.
With multiple offers coming in even before the house is listed, Hanna says sellers can be picky.
"They have one buyer with 5% down, another buyer with cash, and if the cash is a lesser price they're probably going to take the cash offer.
So it's becomes the highest and best offer. That's one of the reasons why you're seeing houses selling in one day with five offers."
Most in demand are homes between $200,000 and $600,000 thousand dollars.
Hanna says beside millennials now wanting homes, boomers have slowed down getting out of their homes.
Many resisted listing their homes during COVID, and even now, because they don't want a group of strangers coming into their homes during an open house.
But his company is projecting the supply issue may dip some more, but then rebound later in the summer.
So Hoddy Hanna's advice is don't wait.
"If you are contemplating, thinking about selling your home, you weren't sure, I don't think you'll have a better time."
However you should know that when you list it, be prepared for a quick sale.
Average sale times have dropped to as low as seven days.
