Anyone who’s seen desperate buyers sizing up one another in the lines for open houses that sometimes stretch for blocks—or, worse, anxiously stood in one of those queues themselves—knows that today’s housing market has become brutally competitive. Prices for homes for sale have risen to previously unthinkable heights due to a severe housing shortage. Even with the market beginning to settle down, bidding wars are still the norm for the most desirable homes.
The nation is in the throes of an unprecedented housing crisis unlike what we experienced during the housing bust of the 2000s. And first-time homebuyers are one of the prime casualties.
