Why is there so much buyer competition in the housing market?
5/5/2021May has officially arrived, and the spring market is still blazing. This past year, in 2020, the real estate market has seen some incredible changes. The most obvious change being the low amount of inventory. This has been for a number of reasons, with the lack of new home construction and different responses to the pandemic being two of the main factors. Buyers are eager to buy homes, and, as seen with many different industries, there are now two “buyer’s seasons” being combined into one.
We are seeing even more buyer competition this Spring 2021, more-so than last year in the housing market. This can be attributed to the fact that the people who were already actively looking since last spring, and couldn’t find a home, “roll over buyers,” are now in competition with the new buyers from this spring. This all contributes to a heightened seller’s market.
The graph above shows the amount of listings and showings our brokerage has had over this past year. We saw the seller’s market take off in June 2020 when Pennsylvania opened back up from the Covid-19 shutdown. After a short slowdown in buyer’s showings in the winter months, the Spring Market flourished. This past week, our office has seen the highest amount of buyer’s showings out of this entire past year. Showings were over 5x the amount of total listings. If there was ever a better time for someone to sell their house, it’d be now.
Overall, this seller’s market with very low inventory is not something new to us, as we have seen it all last year. However, the steady low inventory, combined with “roll over buyers” and this year’s new batch of buyers, has created a scalding seller’s market with intense buyer competition.
If you are thinking about selling and taking advantage of the hottest seller’s market we have seen all this year, give me a call at (484) 319-3867. I’d be happy to discuss real estate with you and give you further insight on this current market.