Real Estate Industry - Finding Jobs in Real Estate

Up-market homes consistently sell above asking in a New Jersey suburb. Bidding wars break out in hot neighborhoods in Cape Cod, Chicago and Seattle. Short sales in some Florida and California markets draw as many as 40 bids.

It's a far cry from 2006, but brokers and agents across the country say multiple offers are once again the norm in specific corners of the market.

"The banks are purposely putting them on the market under value and creating a frenzy," says Kristi Townsend of Altera Real Estate in Mission Viejo, Calif., where dozens of cars recently lined up in front of one bank-owned house the day it listed.

In many areas with heavy short-sale and foreclosure activity, prices in the last few months have reached a point where investors and first-time buyers are clamoring for the best deals. Even in more subdued markets where prices haven't fallen as far, buyers face a competitive market for houses in hot neighborhoods at the right price.

Seattle broker and Realtor Sam DeBord says a couple recently made an offer on a house that was on the market for three days, only to be trumped by one of nine other offers. On their next try, they offered full price on a property that was on the market for two days and beat out two other bids to get the house.

"We've really seen pockets like that" in the last few months, DeBord says. Not all parts of town fare so well, but in his clients' Ballard neighborhood the median time on the market is only 12 days.

"When something comes on that's $300,000, everybody comes to see it the first weekend," DeBord says.

Property values in the Seattle area are down about 20 percent from their 2007 peak, according to the Zillow Home Value Index, and a National Association of Realtors report this month stated that the median price of single-family resale homes in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro area fell 13.7 percent from second-quarter 2008 to second-quarter 2009.

And as prices fall, sales are ramping up. Inventories have shrunk in recent months and pending sales in the four-county Puget Sound region were up 21 percent in July compared to the same month last year, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, a regional MLS.

Multiple offers seem to be making a comeback in a range of markets that lost value but remain highly desirable.

"Everybody and their dog is looking for a deal" among foreclosures and at prices under $200,000, says Heath Coker, broker-owner of the Cape Group in Cape Cod, Mass. For bank-owned, foreclosed properties (also known as real estate-owned properties or REOs), he traces part of bidding activity to banks' slow response to offers and price changes.

Even at the higher price points, Coker says he's seen bidding wars break out in certain locations, despite home values on the Cape at the beginning of the year falling 24 percent compared to 2008. ..