GRAND ISLAND, N.Y. (WKBW) — The housing market is Western New York is experiencing a demand like no other and it's causing buyers like Lee Culp of Grand Island a lot of stress.
“I'm obsessively checking on Realtor.com. Daily. Hourly. I go to bed at night, I wake up and it's like an addiction which is sad and sick,” Culp said.
But his reality is also the reality of so many other buyers in Western New York.
“My buyers are extraordinarily frustrated," associate broker at Howard Hanna Vienna Laurendi said. "They are doing everything they can and it’s not their fault.”
Laurendi said in all her years as Realtor, she has never seen supply this low.
“To only have less than two dozen homes available on Grand Island of a wide variety of price range is almost unheard of,” she said.
Laurendi said buyers are becoming so eager to secure a home that they’re willing to offer up way more money than the sellers are even asking for.
“It's frustrating because of lot of these offers are often in cash and I do not know who has this money in cash. It blows my mind," Culp said.
Laurendi said she's never seen this many cash buyers in the market place. But, they are the ones securing homes during this unprecedented time.
Beth Anton is a seller on Grand Island and she said she never sold a house as quickly as she did her most recent one.
“Literally within 24 hours of having the house go on the market I had 15 showings booked immediately,” she said.
“And now we’ve got 14 buyers who didn’t get a house so they're sitting and waiting in the fox hole for the next for sale sign to come up," Laurendi added. "And they're all going to the same one.”
Laurendi says the lack of builders, foreclosures, and sellers is what’s bringing the housing market into a frenzy.
“If we’ve got people who have to relocate from one house to another and we have a domino effect of A has to move into B who has to move into C. We’re having a real tough time,” she said.
And she is not exactly sure when the rough patch will end.
“ If I can encourage any builder out there who’s on the fence. Start digging because your new builds are in high demand,” Laurendi said.
