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House prices may not be as high as they were at their 2006 peak, but they are close. And as Bloomberg reports, we are starting to see the type of activity that should worry regulators and central bankers. 35% of home-buyers in the U.S. are now buying houses sight unseen. Even with a planned 3 interest rate hikes in 2018, the Fed may be behind the curve.
Thirty-five percent of homebuyers in the U.S. aren’t even visiting the property before they put in a bid, amid torrid competition in a tight market, according to the latest survey by Redfin Corp.
The survey, conducted in November and December, polled 1,503 people who had purchased a home in the previous year. It found that the proportion of those bidding sight unseen was almost double the 19 percent reported in June 2016, the brokerage firm said in a statement Monday. Younger buyers were more comfortable bidding without visiting, and the practice was more common out West, particularly in Los Angeles, where more than half of respondents said they’d done so.
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Jeremy Jones, CFA
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