Real Estate News
A new Bright MLS survey suggests a rise in inventory is making it easier for buyers to find their next home.
The intensity appears to be dialing back in the Mid-Atlantic real estate market, which is good news for homebuyers who want to solidify a deal this spring.
A new Bright MLS survey conducted among about 3,000 agents found that fewer bidding wars took place in the region — which includes Washington, D.C. — during the first quarter of 2025. With inventory on the rise, this spring has been favorable for buyers.
“While it’s not officially a buyer’s market yet, the pendulum is clearly swinging away from the intensely competitive conditions of recent years,” Bright MLS Chief Economist Lisa Sturtevant said in a press release. “Buyers are seeing more options and facing fewer obstacles compared to this time last year.”
Single offer successes: For many buyers, it’s not taking as long this year to find a home. Nearly 40% of those who closed on a home during the first three months of 2025 searched for less than a month — double the share who spent the same amount of time house hunting during the first quarter of 2024, the survey found.
Half of buyers only had to make one offer to snap up a home — another increase that signals buyer conditions are easing.
“This marks a notable change from the past few years, when buyers were competing over a dearth of inventory and typically had to make offers on multiple homes before they reached the settlement table,” Sturtevant wrote of the survey’s findings.
Still, conditions were a bit tougher for first-time buyers. Just 43% closed on a home after making just one offer, compared to 51% of repeat buyers.
Compromises remain necessary: Though competition appeared to be easing for buyers, nearly half (45%) still said they made compromises on their home wish list, with location serving as the most common trade-off buyers made, followed by home quality and price.
Many buyers’ willingness to purchase a home “as is” suggests they felt lingering competition pressure and concern about missing out, according to Sturtevant.
High rates discouraging fewer buyers: Though economic concerns have contributed to mortgage rate volatility in recent weeks, Fannie Mae’s most recent forecast suggested the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage could fall to 6.2% by the end of 2025.
But mortgage rates might not need to fall much in order to get buyers off the sidelines. More than 80% of agent survey respondents said the buyers they worked with found it “very easy” or “somewhat easy” to qualify for a mortgage. Additionally, fewer potential buyers this year (42%) hit pause on their search for a home amid concerns about high rates compared with nearly 60% during the first quarter of 2024.
If rates continue to decline, “that could be enough, along with more inventory, to entice more buyers into the market this spring,” Sturtevant wrote.