Despite Inventory Shortage, Homebuyer Activity Increased in February with Home Offers Up 20%, Tours Up 6% in Redfin Real-Time Demand Pulse

Seattle Redfin – March 7, 2013 – (RealEstateRama) — (www.redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate broker, today issued its Real-Time Demand Pulse, the only report in the industry that analyzes tour and offer data. The report showed:

• Customers requesting home tours were up 6.1% in February, compared with a 3.7% decline during the same period in 2012.
• Even after the large surge of demand in January, customers signing offers increased an additional 20.3% in February, slightly more modest than last year’s 27.7% increase.
• While it is typical to see demand increase in January and February, this year offers rose 267% at the end of February compared to the “holiday slump” in 2012, much larger than the 168% gain over the same period a year ago.

After a strong surge in homebuyer demand in January, homebuyer activity continued to increase into February, despite little improvement to the inventory shortage. Because so many homebuyers are competing for so few homes, the dramatic increase in offers does not translate to a dramatic increase in home sales. A home that draws twenty or thirty offers only ends up with one successful buyer. Redfin’s latest Real-Time Homebuyer Survey suggests that homebuyers have begun to feel additional pressure that home prices will increase significantly this year, which is likely why homebuyers do not seem to be retreating from the market after a difficult experience like losing a bidding war.

Click or paste the following link to read the complete Redfin Real-Time Demand Pulse. http://blog.redfin.com/?p=12515

About this Report
The Redfin Real-Time Demand Pulse is a monthly analysis of thousands of customers touring homes and signing offers in twenty markets across the United States. Redfin is the only major real estate broker storing data in one location about its agent tours and offers, enabling the company to project sales volume for the U.S. without waiting 30 – 45 days for sales to close, or an additional 15 – 30 days for them to be recorded as public record.

>About Redfin

Redfin (www.redfin.com) 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 21 U.S. markets and has closed more than $5 billion in home sales. In 2012, Redfin was named one of The DIGITAL 100: World’s Most Valuable Private Tech Companies by Business Insider. Follow us on our blog (blog.redfin.com), Twitter (@redfin), and Facebook (facebook.com/redfin).
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