For the data-driven like myself, our local MLS’s inclusion of a “Number of Offers” field last year was a very welcome gift.  I’ve since kept tabs on how many bidding wars we’ve been getting ourselves into, and the numbers align with the re-balancing of the market we’ve seen underway.

At our peak, a stunning 45% of the homes offered for sale in Berkeley received more than five offers.  That number has since dropped to 22% for August.  Unsurprisingly, the most active listings were on the lower to mid-range for the area (in Berkeley the average list price to receive the highest number of offers was $759k).

How much did these bidding wars help the Sellers?  Average overbid on my Berkeley sample was a whopping $223k over list price.  I expect the number of bidding wars will continue to decline as the market stabilizes.