Is it so far fetched to assume some realtors may be juicing the bidding to increase their own commission and to make their firm more uhh "prestigious" by being able to drive up the price for their own marketing purposes further down the line.
Likewise if you dont know who you're bidding against, how do you even know the bidder is even real (foreign or not)? Transparency is good thing.
While there may be some "scarcity" not having full transparency and realtors not in alignment with their own clients needs is a step in the right direction.
(I use scare quotes here because while I know we're not building enough but the current market has a fair share of retail speculation, institutional investors inflating prices, and homes held as purely places to mark money(non-owner occupied). Scarcity is real and building does need to happen, but thats slow and expensive. Millions of homes are kept empty or as poor speculative investments and thats a problem)
Likewise if you dont know who you're bidding against, how do you even know the bidder is even real (foreign or not)? Transparency is good thing.
While there may be some "scarcity" not having full transparency and realtors not in alignment with their own clients needs is a step in the right direction.
(I use scare quotes here because while I know we're not building enough but the current market has a fair share of retail speculation, institutional investors inflating prices, and homes held as purely places to mark money(non-owner occupied). Scarcity is real and building does need to happen, but thats slow and expensive. Millions of homes are kept empty or as poor speculative investments and thats a problem)