By Jeff Ostrowski
From Bankrate.com
The housing market caught fire in 2020 as Americans decided en masse that they wanted homes and were willing to pay for them.
Two years on, the pandemic-era housing boom continues to rage. Home prices have set one record after another. Bidding wars have become the norm in many markets.
While the sustained spike in prices is good news for sellers of homes, it’s not so great for buyers forced to pay prices that would have been unthinkable a year or two ago, and even to bypass basic safeguards such as appraisal waivers and inspection clauses….