SEATTLE-Redfin (www.redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage, has released its July 2013 Bidding War Report based on Offer Insights, statistics compiled from thousands of offers written each month by Redfin agents for their home-buying clients.
Competition for homes across the U.S. dropped from 68.6% in June to 63.3% in July. The number of Redfin offers facing competition peaked in March at 75.7%. This bidding war data is in line with other Redfin research that points toward the strong sellers' market beginning to shift toward more balance, giving frustrated home-buyers a bit of relief.
Redfin agents report that buyers who have been in the market for even a few months have noticed the change in their favor. Increasing inventory, rapidly rising home prices and interest rate spikes all contribute to the continuing trend toward a less competitive market. Less measurable market forces such as buyer fatigue and buyers taking summer vacations probably also played a role in this trend.
Redfin agents and analysts are closely monitoring bidding war rates, expecting them to continue their downward trend into the fall. This would be a contrast to last year's pattern, which saw the market heat up in the autumn months.

The report's key findings include:

    --  As a result of reduced competition, winning offers fell closer to list
        prices for the second consecutive month. Nationally, the average
        difference between winning offers and list prices fell to 0.6% in
        July from 0.9% in June and 1.4 percent in May.
    --  San Diego and Orange County saw the largest decreases in competition,
        with bidding war rates falling by more than 10 percentage points in
        July.
    --  Washington, D.C.'s bidding war rate saw the smallest decline, falling
        just 1.2 points in July.
    --  Baltimore was the only metro area where bidding wars increased, with an
        8.8 percentage point jump in July.

The table below ranks the hottest real estate markets in order of competitiveness.

    Rank Market          Percent            Percent            Percent of        Percent      Average
                        of                of Offers          Offers that        of            Difference
                        Offers            that              Faced              Winning      Between
                        that              Faced              Competition,      Offers        Offer Price on
                        Faced              Competition,      July              that          Winning
                        Competition,      June                            2012  Were          Offers &
                        July                            2013                    Over          Asking Price
                                      2013                                        Asking
                                                                                  Price
    ---                                                                          -----

    #1  San Francisco                80.5%              89.7%              81.6%        78.0%                5.4%
    ---  -------------                ----              ----              ----          ----                  ---

    #2  Los Angeles                  79.9%              86.1%              83.2%        45.7%                0.5%
    ---  -----------                  ----              ----              ----          ----                  ---

    #3  Orange County                78.2%              88.6%              68.9%        37.5%                -0.9%
    ---  -------------                ----              ----              ----          ----                ----

    #4  San Diego                    71.1%              81.9%              73.4%        29.0%                -1.8%
    ---  ---------                    ----              ----              ----          ----                ----

    #5  Boston                      65.0%              73.9%              45.3%        60.0%                0.7%
    ---  ------                      ----              ----              ----          ----                  ---

    #6  Seattle                      59.8%              65.7%              61.7%        56.5%                2.7%
    ---  -------                      ----              ----              ----          ----                  ---

    #7  Washington D.C.              58.5%              59.7%              39.5%        42.2%                -0.1%
    ---  ---------------              ----              ----              ----          ----                ----

    #8  Baltimore                    50.0%              41.2%              45.5%        27.3%                0.8%
    ---  ---------                    ----              ----              ----          ----                  ---

    #9  Chicago                      44.8%              49.2%              40.1%        14.8%                -4.1%
    ---  -------                      ----              ----              ----          ----                ----

        National                    63.3%              68.6%              60.8%        46.8%                0.6%
        --------                    ----              ----              ----          ----                  ---

To read the full report on Redfin's blog, complete with accounts of real bidding wars from Redfin agents and market-by-market statistics on offer strategies,visit:  http://www.redfin.com/research/reports/real-time-bidding-wars.

Redfin is a technology-powered real estate broker that represents people buying and selling homes. Founded and run by technologists, Redfin has a team of experienced, full-service real estate agents who are advocates, not sales-people, earning customer-satisfaction bonuses, not commissions. Redfin's online tools feature all the broker-listed homes for sale, as well as for-sale-by-owner properties that don't pay brokers a commission. The company serves 22 U.S. markets and has closed more than $8 billion in home sales.