Last week we released the latest round of the Redfin By The Numbers reports. With these posts, we’re trying to give some insight into what’s going on in the market right now by looking at what our clients have been doing.
This is the national roundup, for the local numbers, check out the reports for:
- Greater Boston
- Chicagoland
- Metro Washington, DC area
- San Francisco Bay Area
- Seattle area
- Southern California
19% Of Offers Are On Bank-Owned Homes
Of the offers we submitted to listing agents in April, 19% were on bank-owned homes, down from 24% in March. San Francisco Bay Area (38%) and Southern California (35%) had the highest percentages of offers on bank-owned homes. In both of these areas, listing agents are aggressively pricing bank-owned homes to attract buyers and generate multiple offers.
From what we’re hearing from our agents, this tactic is working in the Bay Area and Southern California: if you see a good home with a price that looks like a deal, so has everbody else. You should expect the home to have multiple offers that will drive the final price above the list price.
Outside of California, bank-owned homes are not nearly as prominent. In Boston, Chicago and Seattle offers on bank-owned homes made up only 5 – 7% of all the offers we submitted to listing agents. In these markets, more bank-owned properties are coming on the market, but they are still not near the levels in California.
Sale To List At 95.5%
The sale-to-list price for Redfin deals that closed in April was 95.5%. This means that Redfin customers paid, on average 4.5% below list price, up slightly from 4.4% in March. On a $500,000 home, this represents a savings of $22,500, not including the Redfin rebate.
We pay our agents to do the right thing: Redfin agents earn a salary and bonuses based on customer-satisfaction surveys, not commissions. As a result, our agents negotiate hard to get the best deal for our clients. With Redfin, there’s no sales pressure, just great service at every step from negotiation to close.
It’s Taking 40 Days To Close On Your Home
In April, it took Redfin clients an average of 40 days from when buyers and sellers agree to terms until the close of the deal, up from 39 days in March. It took our Boston clients the longest at 49 days while Seattle and DC clients had the shortest escrow periods of 36 days and 37 days respectively. A year ago, it took our clients 35 days to close.
Why is it taking so long to close on a home? Lenders are much more careful about approving loans. In addition, banks are so busy with all the refinancing they’re doing that new mortgages sometimes end up on the back burner.
The good news is our clients are getting mortgages. While escrow periods are increasing, we haven’t seen a change in the rate our clients’ deals fail to get financing. For April 2% of our deals didn’t close because of problems with financing, the same as in March. Lenders are being more careful, but not stingier.
Brokerage Activity Up 24%, Website Visits Up 15%
Our clients toured 24% more homes for sale in April than in March. In DC, the increase was 40%. We’ve hired 27 new field agents since the start of April to meet the increase in tour requests.
Visits to Redfin.com were up 15% in April. The largest increases were in Boston (19%), Seattle (18%) and the Bay Area (18%).
This indicates we’re ramping up into the busy season as more buyers are online searching and are out touring homes.
Redfin Has The Top Three Buyer’s Agents In King County, WA
For the second consecutive month since we started checking, the top three buyer’s agents for King County, WA are Redfin agents: Allie Howard, Febe Cude and Trevor Smith. Our other three agents ranked in the top 6% for King County in April based first on number of transactions, then by total dollar amount.
This means our clients work with the some of the most active and successful agents around. With the numbers of deals they work on every month, Redfin agents know what’s going on in the market right now.
97% Customer Satisfaction
Our clients love working with Redfin. In April, 156 out of 161 respondents, or 97% said they would recommend Redfin to a friend, the same as in March. This number means a lot to us because it tracks how happy our clients are and our agents get paid based on it.
We ask every customer who signs a listing or offer agreement with us to rate the likelihood he or she would recommend Redfin to a friend on a 0-to-10 scale. Customers who answered 6 or higher count as people who would recommend Redfin to a friend. We post all of the unedited responses online so clients can make informed decisions about which agent they want to work with.
Look For The May Reports
In early June, we’ll post our analysis of our May numbers. Let us know what numbers you’d like see in the next Redfin By The Numbers posts.
Here’s the spreadsheet with the April data.
(Photo credit: lrargerich on Flickr)
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