Redfin Corp. said Wednesday that the number of home offers that faced competition in June dropped below 50% for the first time in more than two years, when housing market nearly froze due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, as higher mortgage rates, high home prices, inflation and a falling stock market erode homebuyer budgets. The online real estate services company said the June “bidding-war” rate fell for a fifth-straight month to 49.9%, the lowest rate since May 2020, and down from 57.3% in May and down from 65% a year ago. The metropolitan area that saw the biggest year-over-year decline in the bidding-war rate was Riverside, Calif., to 31.9% from 70.5%, followed by Raleigh, North Carolina, to 38.9% from 74.1%. The metro areas with the highest bidding-war rates were Providence at 77.6% and Boston at 71.7%. Townhouses were more likely than any other property type to have bidding wars at 54.6%. Redfin stock, which was little changed in premarket trading, has plunged 75.0% year to date, while the S&P 500 has lost 17.4%.
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