SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. — Amid the coronavirus pandemic, people in the Spokane-area who are selling their homes have continued to see a lot of offers.
With interest rates at a 50 year low, sellers have been getting over 20 offers on their houses.
"Home prices have actually increased quite a bit because there is just not enough homes for all of the buyers who are looking right now," Cindy Carrigan, owner of Five Star Real Estate, said.
She said she never expected the Spokane real estate market to be in such high demand. Before the pandemic, she was worried that there may be a market crash. Her fears were the same as her sellers.
But, it's turned out to be the opposite. With sellers on the market, people started to look for houses, but the buyers far outweighed the sellers.
"It was driven by people going 'Oh gosh, is our real estate market going to crash? We better sell our house now before it crashes'," Carrigan said.
Then, there was another issue: how would someone make such a big purchase without ever walking inside the new home?
It turns out, people are willing to decide on a new house before stepping in it.
"Motivated ones are very, very much on top of getting into the home as quickly as possible and making offers," she added.
Having too many offers is great for the seller, but not for the buyers. Since this is a 'seller's market,' it is much more beneficial to sell a house now, rather than buy one.
Bidding wars can work in your favor if you look at houses that are priced less than your budget, that way you have room to come in with higher offer.