EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — El Paso’s real estate market is experiencing a lack of home listings, but the number of potential homebuyers is rising.
Jennifer Stroh Viescas, Realtor with Century21 The Edge and regional vice president for the Texas Association of Realtors, said in Spring 2020, many sellers took their houses off the market because of the pandemic.
Later, in the summer of the same year, listings slightly bounced back, she said, but not nearly enough for the number of buyers looking to pursue their “American Dream” of owning a house.
This situation sparked sort of a bidding war for buyers interested in the same property.
Viescas said one house in Northeast El Paso, priced around $150,000 got 10 offers only a day after it was put on the market.
Even though houses in that price range are usually popular on the market, she said this number of offers is still unusual.
“The first day I put it on the market, we instantly had a bunch of showings, by the second day, I had 10 offers and only one of them was at the list price, everything else was above the list price,” she said.
Interested buyers will make offers above the listing price and offer to pay closing costs, which are usually requested to be paid by the seller, Viescas explained.
Not only are people making offers over the sale price, but they’re also buying larger homes.
Viescas said, “with the interest rate so low, someone could qualify for a bigger house right now than they would be able to a couple of years ago.”
The lack of houses on the market, Viescas believes, is due to halts in foreclosures and extensions on evictions, which makes it more difficult for sellers to put their property on the market.
Nonetheless, Viescas said, the time to sell or buy a home is right now.
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