“Bidding Wars are Back in Tight Market” – the LA Times (Sunday, June 10, 2012 – front cover) reports.  The newest problem for our slowly recovering market is a lack of inventory.  Open houses are crowded with buyers on the hunt for a house here in the South Bay.  Doesn’t really matter if you’re looking in the Hollywood Riviera, South Torrance, Redondo Beach, Palos Verdes or Manhattan Beach – there are very few homes for sale.  This is true across the country right now as well.  

According the National Association of Realtors:  “The number of American homes for sale hit 2.5 million in April, the lowest number for an April since 2006.”

Multiple offers are back – a house that needed tons of work here in the Hollywood Riviera (a very desirable section of South Torrance with a Redondo Beach address) just received 11 offers on it.  And according to the ‘grapevine’ it sold over asking by quite a bit.  The last couple of transactions I was involved in also sold in multiple offers…so clearly it’s a  true phenomenon. 

This sharp drop in inventory paired with these historically low interest rates should certainly feed our once weak real estate market back to health in a hurry.  What happened only 6 months ago is already history as we forge into the next half of 2012’s real estate market with quite a leg up over last year’s numbers.