As we enter the Fall Boston condo selling season and as mortgage rates surge, August’s bidding-war rate fell to its lowest level since April 2020, according to a new Redfin report.
In August, 44.6% of offers written by Redfin agents faced competition, the lowest since the start of the pandemic and down 63.5% from last year. August was the seventh straight month of declines, as mortgage rates topped 6%, pushing some buyers out of the market.
To compare, the report found a typical bidding war in August had 3.2 offers compared to 3.5 offers in July and 5 offers in 2021.
In Boston, 54% of Redfin offers faced competition in August, down from 55.2% in July and 68.7% a year prior. And in Worcester, 51.2% of offers faced competition last month, down from July’s 54.3% and last year’s 65.3%.
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Bidding wars eased in September dropping to a 2021 low
There’s good news for prospective homebuyers — for the first time during this year’s most competitive real estate market in history, the bidding-war rate has fallen to a 2021 low.
According to a recent Redfin report, 58.9% of September home offers faced competition, the lowest level in nine months, coming on the heels of the market showing signs of a seasonal slowdown and as mortgage rates began to rise. September was the fifth consecutive month of declines. In August 60.8% faced a bidding war, down from April’s 74.3% peak.
Raleigh had the highest bidding war rate at 73.9%. Boston came in at No. 2 where the share of Redfin offers facing bidding wars last month was 71.7% compared to 67.2% in August and 57.2% in September 2020. That was followed by Indianapolis at 71.4%, Sacramento at 70.5% and San Diego at 70.3%.
In a year where local agents pulled out all the stops to help their clients win bidding wars, housing competition has started to ease, yet homes are still…