Less than a day after real estate agent Andrea White listed a three-bedroom home in Sacramento, California in March, she received a cash offer. The buyer – who has not even seen the house in person – was willing to pay $ 520,000, said Ms. White said. That was $ 21,000 above the asking price and 37% more than what the seller paid for the farmhouse just two years ago.
Accepting the offer was the easy part. Mrs. White then had to call 17 other agents who had traveled through the house to let them know it was not from the market.
Mrs. White, who works for the Redfin Corp brokerage and has been an agent since 2014, has never seen anything like the sales mania grip her city in Northern California. “It’s exhausting,” she said. “I’m speechless. It’s heartbreaking for buyers; it’s a celebration for sellers.”
The past year has been the most popular selling activity in 14 years. Home values are rising in virtually every corner of the U.S., and average selling prices in dozens of subway areas have plummeted, according to Zillow Group Inc. achieved a double-digit percentage increase from a year ago. 25% in January of a year earlier, while in Stamford, Conn., It rose 19%.
“Prices are going up almost everywhere,” said Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo & Co. “It is surprising to see that house prices, to this extent, are rapidly bouncing back to an economic recovery.”