CHICAGO – Home sellers are still fetching multiple offers on their properties and buyers continue to face competition, even as the housing market has shown some signs of slowing.

Realtors® reported an average of nearly five offers on each home that sold in March, according to the March Realtors Confidence Index survey.

On average, half of buyers made two offers before being successful in their purchase by the third try, the survey shows.

Buyers are paying more than list price, too. Fifty-seven percent of buyers offered above the list price, which is up from 48% in February.

“Multi-offers on a home are still prevalent because even if buyer traffic is weakening it is still outpacing supply,” Gay Cororaton, NAR research economist, writes on the association’s Economists’ Outlook blog. “With homebuying demand still outpacing supply, properties typically stayed on the market for a shorter time compared to one year ago, at 17 days on the market.”

Eighty-seven percent of listings were on the market for less than one month.

Cash buyers still continue to hold the upper hand in bidding wars, accounting for 28% of sales in March. Buyers who offered an all-cash transaction were four times more likely to win in a competitive offer situation than those who didn’t in 2021, according to a recent Redfin report.

All-cash offers were found to be significantly more successful than other strategies, such as waiving financing contingencies or pre-inspections.

Source: “Multioffer Bidding Still Prevalent Despite Slowing Demand,” National Association of Realtors® Economists’ Outlook blog (April 22, 2022)

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