Home Prices on the Rise
Kaushik Mukerjee and Preeti Vasishtha faced stiff competition when they set out to buy a home last spring. The couple, who live in Northern Virginia and have an 8-year-old son, were looking for a home in a good school district, but they lost out to other bidders on two houses before their offer on a townhouse stuck. "In one case we competed against 10 other offers, and the home sold for $20,000 above list price," Mukerjee says. Ultimately, the couple paid $502,000--slightly above list price--for a 2,000-square-foot, three-bedroom townhouse in Burke, Va.
Kody Henderson, a 26-year-old first-time home buyer, also grappled with a hyperÂactive market when he looked for a home in the Seattle area. He struck out on three before he snagged a three-bedroom single-family house for $465,000 in Burien, Wash., last November. "I kept getting beat by cash offers that were usually above list price," says Henderson. "It was frustrating."
More buyers are looking for a home than at any time since 2013. Skylar Olsen, Zillow's director of economic research, says demand for homes has increased over the past five years as a result of strong economic growth as well as low mortgage rates and more millennials entering their thirties and "approaching peak home buying ages." (According to a recent report from the National Association of Realtors, the median age of first-time home buyers is 33.)
Furthermore, a large cohort of baby's senior economist.
