Stable employment and a booming economy in many parts of the country have given rise to an increase in bidding wars, or multiple buyers submitting offers over a home’s asking price, in many of the nation’s smaller metropolitan areas.
"Multiple-offer scenarios are no longer reserved to the usual big, fast-moving markets,” says Javier Vivas, director of economic research for realtor.com. “Demand for homes has spilled outward into secondary, smaller markets, and more buyers are gearing up to face fierce competition in more places around the country."
In order to determine where bidding wars have grown the fastest in the past year, Realtor.com compared listing data in the nation’s 150 largest cities from 2015-2016 to listing data from 2017-2018.
According to this metric, Akron, Ohio has experienced the greatest increase in homes sold above list price between 2015-2016 and 2017-2018 91.7%. The market’s median home listing price is $150,000, and a 20.6% share of the city’s homes sold above list price during this period. Other heated markets for bidding wars include Worchester, Mass., with an 88.1% increase in homes sold over listing price, and Lexington, K.Y., with a 86.4% increase in homes sold over listing price.
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