The four-bedroom house in North Tustin went on the market on a Thursday. That Saturday, Vik and Sarah Szemerei were inside, checking out the midcentury living room and debating how they could remodel the kitchen at the $1.1-million listing. qatar sales
If they wanted to act, they didn’t have much time; offers were due Tuesday.
California’s housing market has been tight for years. But these are no regular times. Instead of the traditional open house where dozens of people flow in at their leisure and can stay for hours, pandemic rules limit showings to one group at a time.
The Szemereis had 30 minutes to tour the 2,092-square-foot home. They overstayed their slot by a bit, on the way out passing another couple awaiting their own timed tour. The Szemereis’ agent, Derek Oie, told them: Be aggressive. The property will have multiple offers.
“It’s almost like you speed date and then you are expected to marry someone,” said Vik Szemerei, 39, who put in an offer that weekend, one of a dozen that were submitted. “My wife and I were like: On the one hand we will be so thrilled if we get it. And on the other hand, we are going to look at each other and say, ‘What did we just do?’”
Homes are selling at warp speed nationwide, forcing would-be buyers to make snap decisions on what is typically the biggest purchase of their lives. In California, houses haven’t sold faster in at least three decades, according to data from the state’s main Realtors association.
In March, a home’s median time on the market in the Golden State was eight days, the shortest time period recorded by the California Assn. of Realtors, whose database goes back to 1990. In the bubble years of 2003 to 2005, homes typically took more than 20 days to sell. In the hot-market years preceding the pandemic, the median time on the market at times dipped further, hitting a low of 14 days in 2017.
Few in the industry can remember a period when time on the market has been this short.
A combination of factors have collided during the pandemic to produce a market operating at a record pace, economists and real estate agents said. They include record-low mortgage rates, many people seeking out more space and a fresh influx of property investors. Making everything move even faster is how much of the home-buying process has moved online.
At the heart of today’s snap buying is the cavernous gap between supply and demand, several experts said. The pandemic’s economic job losses mostly haven’t touched the high-income earners most likely to buy homes, a cohort that is also saving more money now and seeking out larger homes. Millennials are also increasingly entering their early 30s, when people usually buy a home for the first time.
At the same time, structural changes are afoot that have enabled people to act more quickly if they want. Video tours of homes — either recorded or conducted live — have become more common during the pandemic, making people increasingly comfortable buying a home sight unseen, some experts said.
Compared with the bubble years of the early 2000s, listing websites such as Zillow and Redfin are now commonplace, allowing buyers to do research on homes the minute they hit the market and, in some cases, start an offer online.
Oie, the Chino Hills real estate agent representing the Szemereis, said such listing websites were shortening market time before the pandemic, allowing buyers to come to a viewing much more prepared and ready to bid. But he said he’s never seen people so willing to pull the trigger as quickly as these days.
In 30 years of work in the housing market, “this is the only one where you have had buyers cramped up” during a pandemic, he said. “Now, when they are getting to the point of buying a home — they are buying a home.”
Frenzied home buyers are breaking all sorts of records. Last year, 63% of people who bought a home nationwide placed an offer without seeing the property, according to a survey by brokerage company Redfin, an all-time high since the survey’s debut in 2015.
Another Redfin survey found 43% of homes that were sold in the four weeks that ended April 11 fetched more than the list price, the highest since at least 2012.
South Bay real estate agent Garrison Comstock said he received 39 offers — about four times what he considered the high-water mark before the pandemic — on a three-bedroom house in Hawthorne that went into escrow for $116,000 over the asking price within six days of being listed.
Another agent, Lindsay Katz of Redfin, said her average sales pace is just two days.
In Southern California, the median home price has risen by double digits for eight consecutive months, reflecting how the intense competition for limited stock has sent pFound your dream home in California? Good luck with that — tomorrow might be gone!
The North Tustin four-bedroom house was launched on a Thursday. On Saturday, Vik and Sarah Szemerei went into the mid-century living-room and discussed how to renovate the $1.1 million listing of the kitchen.
They didn't have a lot of time if they wanted to act. Offers were due Tuesday.
The housing market in California has been tight for years. These are not regular times, however. Instead of the traditional open-air house where dozens of people flow in and stay for hours, pandemic rules restrict pandemic displays to one group.
The Szemereis had to tour the 2,092 square foot house for 30 minutes. They overcame their slots a little while, while they were waiting for another couple on their own timed tour. Agent Derek Oie of the Szemereis said to them: "Be aggressive. The property has several offers.
"It's almost like you're fast and you should marry somebody then," said Vik Szemerei, 39 year old who put one out of a dozen submitted in an offer that weekend. "My wife and I were like: we'll be so excited if we get it on the one hand. And we will look at each other on the other side and say, 'What did we do?'"
Homes sell nationwide at warp speed, forcing supposed buyers to decide snaply about what is typically their biggest purchase. According to data of the state's main Realtors Association, California has not sold houses faster in at least three decades.
In March, the Golden State median house time was eight days, the shortest recorded period of time for the California Assn. of Realtors, whose database dates back to 1990. Homes typically took more than 20 days to sell in the bubble years 2003 to 2005. In the hot-market years leading up to the pandemic, the median market time dropped at times and in 2017 sank by 14 days.
Few in the industry can remember a time when the market time was so short.
A combination of factors collided during the pandemic to produce a record-breaking market, economists and immobilizers said. It includes record low mortgages, many people looking for more space and a fresh inflow of real estate investors. How much of the home-buying process has moved online is to make everything move even quicker.
The cavernous gap between supply and demand is at the heart of today's snap buying, several experts said. The economic losses in the pandemic have mostly not affected high-income householders, a cohort that is now saving more money and seeking out larger homes. Millennials also enter their early 30s increasingly when people usually purchase a house for the first time.
At the same time, structural changes are ongoing, which have allowed people to act faster if they want. Video tours of homes — whether recorded or performed live — became more common during the pandemic, making it more comfortable for people to buy home views, some experts said.
Compared to the bubble years of the early 2000s, listing websites such as Zillow and Redfin is now common, allowing buyers to search home the time they hit the market and sometimes launch an online offer.
Oie, the Szemereis's Chino Hills real estate agent, said these listing sites were shorter before the pandemic, allowing buyers to view much more ready and ready to tender. But he said he never saw people so ready as these days to pull the trigger.
In his 30-year work on the housing market, he said, "this is the only one where buyers have been clenched during a pandemic." "Now, when you're about to buy a home — you're buying a home."
Frenzied home buyers break all kinds of records. According to a survey conducted by brokerage company Redfin last year, 63% of those who purchased a home nationally made an offer without seeing the property, a high all-time since their first survey in 2015.
Another survey by Redfin found that 43 percent of the homes sold in the four weeks ending April 11 were higher than the list price, the highest since at least 2012.
The real estate agent of South Bay, Garrison Comstock, said he received 39 offers — roughly four times what he had seen as the high-water mark before the pandemic — on a Hawthorne 3-bedroom house for a price of 16,000 dollars on the request in six days of the listing.
Lindsay Katz of Redfin, another agent, said her average sales rate was only two days.
For 8 consecutive months in Southern California the median home price has doubled, reflecting how intense competition for limited stock has boosted prices.rices soaring.