Less than a day after real estate agent Andrea White put up a three-bedroom house for sale in Sacramento, California in March, she received an all-cash offer. The buyer – who hadn’t even seen the house in person – was willing to pay $ 520,000, Mrs. White said. That was $ 21,000 above the asking price and 37% more than the seller paid for the ranch-style home two years ago.
Accepting the offer was the easy part. Mrs. White then had to call 17 other agents who had scheduled tours of the house to let them know it was not on the market.
Mrs. White, who works for real estate agency Redfin Corp. and being an agent since 2014 has never seen anything quite like the sales mania that has gripped her Northern California town. “It’s exhausting,” she said. “I’m speechless. It’s heartbreaking for buyers; it’s a party for sellers.”
Last year was the most popular year for sales activity in 14 years. According to Zillow Group Inc. in Boise, Idaho, the average retail price in Boise, Idaho has nearly risen. 25% in January compared to a year earlier, while in Stamford, Conn., It rose 19%.
“Prices have gone up pretty much everywhere,” said Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo & Co. “It is surprising to see house prices rebounding so quickly, at this magnitude, so early in an economic recovery.”