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With tighter inventories of homes for sale, buyers are finding increased competition through bidding wars. But the bidding may not be between only one or two other buyers -- more bidding wars are popping up where dozens or even hundreds of other buyers are all competing for the same property. 

"The only question is not whether a new listing will get multiple bids but how many it will get," Matt Jensen, who manages The Cascade Team Real Estate office in the Issaquah Highlands or Washington State, said.

In one example, a home in Bellevue, WA., reportedly received 43 separate bids, with the final sales price more than $100,000 above its $769,000 asking price. In The Issaquah Highlands, Sammamish, and Snoqualmie Ridge…

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  • Even with 9332 New Listing in March, a greater number went Pending or Sold continuing to shrink inventory and fule demand!
  • Prices in Western Washington increased 14.9% Year over Year
  • Sales in Western Washington increased 13.9% Year over Year

Prices "spiking" as home buyers compete for scarce inventory

KIRKLAND, Wash. (April 4, 2013) –Brokers added 9,332 new listings to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service database during March, but pending sales topped that number to further crimp inventory and trigger competitive bidding among buyers who are flocking to open houses.

"All price ranges are feeling a lift," reported Dick Beeson, principal managing broker at RE/MAX Professionals in Tacoma. Northwest MLS…

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The first quarter was marked by growing optimism about global growth, particularly with strong data pointing to a recovery in the United States.  The stronger than expected growth increased speculation the U.S. Federal Reserve might scale back its aggressive stimulus earlier than planned.  Mortgage rates increased .25% during the quarter but would have been much more if the Fed were not buying $40 billion of MBS on a monthly basis. The housing market is clearly on a path to recovery.  The chart below shows the number of new housing units authorized by building permits over the last two years.  Inventory of homes for sale continues to decrease and sales activity is increasing.  At the current sales pace, there are 4.4 months…

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 Joe Weisenthal and Mamta Badkar                            

This beautiful chart from today's Case-Shiller house price report shows that housing has made a comeback.

Not only were prices around the country up over 8%, but the year-over-year improvement continues  to accelerate nicely.

Both the 10 and 20-city composite indices had their highest increases since  summer 2006. "This marks the highest increase since the housing bubble burst,"  according to David  Blitzer Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

While declining inventory has helped support home prices, housing analysts  have said housing is also seeing a "positive feedback loop" i.e. when people  think home prices are rising, they believe…

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"And now... the rest of the story." Paul Harvey. With his famous line, “…there's more to every story…” and often those hidden details influence what happened. Read on to learn the big stories from last week, and the important details to note.

                        There was good news last week as retail sales increased 1.1% in February, up from 0.2% in January. This marked the biggest gain in the retail sales number in five months. In addition, the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) reported that its small-business confidence index inched higher in February.

However, it is important to note that the NFIB's confidence index is still historically low and is below the lowest trough of the 1991-92 and 2001-02…

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by Louis Basenese Chief Investment Strategist, Wall Street Daily

We're less than one year into a legitimate recovery in prices, and already the pundits can't help but sound the alarm about another possible "bubble"? Give me a break!

Forget Rodney Dangerfield, the residential real estate rebound gets "no respect."

Don't worry. We're nowhere close to another peak. Nor has the profit potential for housing-related investments suddenly vanished.

Here are 10 hard facts to prove it...

1. Too Far, Too Fast? Nope!

Housing market bears point to the meteoric rise of homebuilding stocks as proof that the recovery has been too robust, too soon.

The S&P 1500 Homebuilder group is up 170% since hitting a low in August 2011.…

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Mortgage rates moved lower this week, just in time for the spring home buying season, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey. After rising last week, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage reversed course and inched back down. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage — the most popular among home buyers — has remained below 4 percent for a year.

"Low and stable inflation is placing downward pressure on fixed mortgage rates,” says Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. 

Here’s a closer look at mortgage rate averages for the week ending March 21: 

  • 30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.54 percent, with an average 0.8 point, dropping from last week’s 3.63 percent average. A year ago at…

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  • April 13th
  • The Cascade Team Highland Office
  • 2423 NE Park Drive
  • Issaquah, WA 98029

 

  • Crayon Collection and Drop-Off from 11am-2pm
  • April 20th
  • Snoqualmie Ridge IGA
  • 7730 Center Blvd. Se, Snoqualmie WA
  • Crayon Collection and Drop-Off from 10am-2pm

 

  • April 20th
  • QFC - Klahanie
  • 4570 Klahanie Drive
  • Issaquah, WA 98029
  • Crayon Collection and Drop-Off from 10am-2pm

 

  • April 20th
  • QFC - Pine Lake
  • 2902 228th Ave SE
  • Sammamish, WA 98075
  •  Crayon Collection and Drop-Off from 10am-2pm

 

  • April 20th
  • QFC - North Bend
  • 460 E North Bend Way
  • North Bend, WA 98045
  • Crayon Collection and Drop-Off from 10am-2pm

 

April Is Crayon Drive Month

For the eight year, The Cascade Team Real Estate is kicking off…

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Some housing markets are heating up so much that homes are selling in less than 24 hours—also known as a “flash sale.” 

Recently analyzed data from major metro areas using MLS information as well as shared information amoung brokerages between Oct. 1, 2012 and Feb. 26, 2013, reveal which metros are seeing some of the fastest sales. These rankings are based on cities that were seeing a home status going from active to pending in less than a day after being listed. Many of those listings in as little as an hour.

Here are the cities are seeing the most flash sales:

  1. Phoenix: 540
  2. Chicago: 261
  3. Houston: 188
  4. Dallas: 184
  5. Austin: 163
  6. San Diego: 135
  7. Los Angeles: 132
  8. Sacramento, Calif.: 128
  9. Denver: 115
  10. …

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As the housing market continues to come back around, more and more statistics are surfacing that give us hope for the future. According to Inman News, things are definitely looking up. CoreLogic’s home price index is dishing out some encouraging news – home prices are up significantly! This is especially true in Western Washington, San Diego and the Phoenix housing markets.

According to CoreLogic, home prices were up 0.7 percent in January from December. While that may not seem like a huge month-to-month increase, consider this: January’s year-over-year home prices made the biggest jump in seven years – national home prices were up in January by 9.7 percent from a year ago. This is the biggest increase since 2006.

…

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