SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The housing market is expected to be more competitive this spring than it was last year, according to real estate agents surveyed this month by Redfin (www.redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage. The latest Redfin Real-Time Agent Survey found that 61 percent of agents expect the market to be more competitive, with the biggest increases expected by agents in the Northeast and Midwest, where severe inventory shortages persist.
“Bidding wars are heating up in Boston,” says Redfin agent Adam Welling. “The difference this year is that competition has spread. With inventory so low, homebuyers are expanding their search and neighborhoods that didn’t have multiple offers last year are now seeing heavy competition.”
Other Survey Findings:
- This winter’s inclement weather put a damper on homebuyer activity in some markets. In the Midwest and the Northeast, 48% and 39% of respondents indicated that weather hurt buyer demand “a lot.”
- Low inventory remains the most common challenge for homebuyers, with 90% of agents selecting that response, up from 87% last quarter and down from 96% last year. Eighty-one percent of agents said multiple offers were the most common challenge for homebuyers, up from 65% last quarter, but down from 96% last year.
- The market remains in sellers’ control, by varying degrees according to region. Across all markets, about half of agents indicated that “sellers have a little more power than buyers.” In the West, 38% of agents said “sellers have all the power” compared with 24% in the Midwest.
- Rent-back agreements, in which the seller rents the home from the buyer for a defined period of time after closing, are more common than last year. Twenty-two percent of agents say home sellers are negotiating them “much more often” this year, and 41% say they are being used “a little more often.”
The Redfin Real-Time Agent Sentiment Survey is part of an ongoing series that also includes surveys of homebuyers and sellers.
About the Q1 2014 Redfin Real-Time Agent Sentiment Survey
This survey was conducted between March 17 and 20, and survey respondents included 435 agents from Redfin and outside brokerages. Respondents spanned 26 metropolitan markets in the U.S., including West: Denver, Los Angeles, Orange County, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle; South: Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore,Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Northern Virginia, Phoenix, Raleigh, San Antonio, Washington, D.C.; Midwest: Chicago, Minneapolis; Northeast: Boston, Long Island, Philadelphia, Providence.
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About Redfin
Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a technology-powered real estate broker that represents people buying and selling homes. Founded and run by technologists, Redfin has a team of experienced, full-service real estate agents who are advocates, not salespeople, earning customer-satisfaction bonuses, not commissions. Redfin.com features all the broker-listed homes for sale, as well as for-sale-by-owner properties that don’t pay brokers a commission. Redfin also offers online tools that make the entire process of buying or selling a home easier and more fun. The company serves 23 U.S. markets and has closed more than $13 billion in home sales. In 2012, Redfin was named one of The DIGITAL 100: World’s Most Valuable Private Tech Companies by Business Insider.
