How banks continue to depress the real estate market.

Maybe there is a good reason for this. I just can't see what it is right now.

Today my agent friend said that banks are continuing to change the rules for buyers.

This is the latest thing. The properties that are bank owned will not let you bid more more than the asking price for a house. For example - my friend told me about a bank owned property. I'd seen it come through the MLS, and it seemed pretty cheap. Let us say the bank is asking a hundred dollars for it. Because you don't really want to know how much houses cost in California.

Anyway - my friend said this house has 15 offers on it. But the bank will not let you bid more than a hundred bucks for the property. Say if you bid ten thousand over the asking price - you have to put that money up in cash. I guess potentially under this scheme, you could wind up paying more than 20% down if the house has that many bids. But, I'm not sure how many buyers are going to put up with that shit.

So I asked her "if the house has 15 bids, and they can't bid more than the asking price, how do they pick the person that gets to buy the house"? She said she wasn't sure. It just started happening last week. Perhaps credit score.