The bidding wars are back. With home prices and sales back to or above pre-crisis levels and the inventory of available homes at records lows, CoreLogic's Shu Chen says that a large and increasing share of homes sold at or above their listing prices in 2017.

In September that share was back to early 2004 levels, up almost three times from the 2008 level. Those at-and-above list sales represented more than one-fifth of all transactions.  

Of course, under the "all real estate is local" rule, there is a wide range in the level of bidding activity.  In San Francisco 76 percent of sales were at the asking price or higher, while in Miami only 16 percent of sales reflected pressure from buyer bidding.  Of the 16 Core-Based Statistical Areas (out of the 66 CoreLogic tracked) in Figure 2, the top five for above-list sales were in the Census Bureau's West or Mountain divisions, where home prices have also risen the fastest according to Federal Housing Finance Agency statistics.