Multiple Offers For Homes on the Market Are Becoming More Common

By Rose Quint on July 31, 2020 • (2)

An earlier post revealed that 59% of buyers who were actively engaged in the process of finding a home in the second quarter of 2020 have spent upwards of 3 months searching for a home without success. Although the top reason long-time searchers haven’t pulled the trigger continues to be the inability to find an affordable home (39%), that share is much lower than a year ago (50%). Multiple offers on the same property, on the other hand, are a rising cause for the delay: 30% reported getting outbid by another buyer in the second quarter of 2020, significantly higher than the comparable 18% share a year earlier.

The final question in NAHB’s Housing Trends Report asks these veteran house hunters, who have been actively searching for a home for at least three months, about their future plans if the right home remains elusive in the months ahead:

51% will continue looking for the ‘right’ home in the same preferred location,
37% will expand the search area,
21% is willing to accept a smaller/older home,
19% might buy a more expensive home

Difficulties finding a home to buy has led 19% of active buyers to give up until next year or later. That share is up from 16% a year earlier.

* The Housing Trends Report is a research product created by the NAHB Economics team with the goal of measuring prospective home buyers’ perceptions about the availability and affordability of homes for-sale in their markets. The HTR is produced quarterly to track changes in buyers’ perceptions over time. All data are derived from national polls of representative samples of American adults conducted for NAHB by Morning Consult. Results are not seasonally adjusted due to the short time horizon of the series and therefore only year-over-year comparisons are statistically valid. A description of the poll’s methodology and sample characteristics can be found here. This is the fifth and final in a series of posts highlighting results for the second quarter of 2020. See previous posts on plans to buy, housing availability, housing affordability, and active buyers.