Sixty-seven would-be buyers, one beat-up house.
Fixer was either extremely charismatic or gives us an insight into the current state of real estate.
Perhaps you saw the article in a recent San Jose Mercury News about a Cupertino house that attracted sixty-seven offers. Perhaps the idea that sixty-seven buyers would hurl themselves at one house—and a well-worn "fixer" at that—strained your credibility.
But I was there, representing erstwhile buyers, and it's all true. And I hope the listing agent strained himself lifting all those offers.
No, the house wasn't charismatic. About the best you could say was that it had "potential". I've seen worse, but not much. The list price was a bit low but not the door-buster price some agents use to attract a zillion offers.
Demand for starter homes is overwhelming these days, especially if they're in good neighborhoods with well-regarded schools. Bargain interest rates promise the benefits of homeownership to many once priced out of local real estate. Now they have another chance, and they're not going to let it get away without a fight.
Move-up housing also sells briskly, as homeowners use their home equity and stock market wealth to buy a bigger house in a better area. Even the top end of real estate, in a slump since the dot-coms drove off a cliff, shows a faint pulse.
Is this boom real, or is it just pets.com all over again?
Inevitably, interest rates will rise and take buyers out of the market, although the more aggressive loan products, including interest-only ARMS, have postponed that day of reckoning.
Wall Street has recovered from its 2001 lows but hasn't regained its credibility with Main Street, where real estate still looks golden.
The San Francisco Bay Area seems poised for an economic recovery, but has only recently stopped losing jobs.
So perhaps the only certainty in this market is uncertainty. All we really know is that buyers and sellers should make hay while the sun shines.