In January, there were more real-estate agents than homes for sale in the U.S.

Re:In January, there were more real-estate agents than homes... by ryandrake on Monday March 22, 2021 @04:24PM (#26546416)

When we were buying about 8 years ago in the Bay area, we probably wrote 50 offers, all above asking, and finally got one home. It was a total nightmare as a buyer. One home got 40 written offers, according to the listing agent, and sold for 2X its asking price--all cash, no contingencies.

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Re:In January, there were more real-estate agents than homes... by jb775 on Monday March 22, 2021 @04:29PM (#26546488)

That's insane they got 2X. I'm sure if some of their neighbors knew that, they'd consider selling themselves.

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Re:In January, there were more real-estate agents than homes... by asdff on Monday March 22, 2021 @04:42PM (#26546687)

Sell, then what? Another mortgage if they want to live in the area, or uprooting entirely. That 2 million dollar bay area house might have been a 20k house among 10-40k houses in the 1970s; today it's a 2 million dollar house among 2-10 million dollar houses, so at best you'd be doing a lateral move or downsizing into something grossly overpriced, or line up to become one of the 40 people trying to throw a cash offer somewhere in the stratosphere above list on some midwestern home.

It's a zero sum game unless you upzone and build more housing to meet the demand, because the population of this country has only gone up.

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Re:In January, there were more real-estate agents than homes... by jb775 on Wednesday March 24, 2021 @04:40AM (#26564840)

If you're willing to move to a new area, you can always find certain areas where the housing market is different in regards to supply/demand. You could also plan to rent for a few years to see if the purchase market cools off in the meantime. Rents don't increase proportionally to sudden housing market volatility.

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