in a bidding war for a property, they may not get the nod.
"Compared with low-wage workers, people who tend to have the financial ability to buy homes have been far less likely to lose their jobs, and in some ways, their ability to purchase a house has only expanded."
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I don't really think their ACTUAL ability to purchase a house has expanded; it just appears that way. Even well-qualified home buyers are faced with low-ball and/or higher list pricing and forced by sellers to "bridge the (cash required) gap" following appraisal and inspection at the time of closing, and that amount is much higher, over and above, whatever financing down-payment is required and/or the price-point a buyer has been pre-qualified by their lender. In "hot markets," whatever agenda a seller has in mind isn't really that well-reflected with the "asking price." We've been seeing properties go into contract in our "hot market" town in hours of list and chosen physically sight-unseen by a buyer from the digital public listings. There is also a lot of competition for moderately priced previously owned properties: flippers with minimal margins but deep pockets, cash sales by investors; down-sizing of late boomers and Gen X professionals who are releasing their high-priced McMansions onto the market; persons that were beneficiaries of large familial death benefits; the two-professional-income" family.
Hard-working/hard saving single persons, let alone low-wage workers, don't really have much of a shot to get the nod in bidding wars that produce double-digit numbers of bids. Some sellers request "love letters" to determine their choice of buyer? Really? A subjective acceptance required for a modestly average 2-3 bdrm, 1-2 bath home in suburbia of less than 1500 sq ft?
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