WSJ Says Bidding Wars in Seattle?

[Brad D.]

I would think this is wrong, but who knows. The WSJ is usually fairly solid, but they did turn the comments off on this article:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/despite-stay-at-home-order-seattles-real-estate-market-continues-to-show-up-11586800867

Not sure how much I can copy/paste here, but here is a bit of the article if it is blocked for you:

"Multiple offers. Bidding wars. All-cash deals hours after listings go live: This is all still happening in Seattle, the city that four weeks ago was considered an epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic, and since March 23 has been under a stay-at-home order barring all nonessential activity.

“We were hoping we could get a fair price for a home now,” says Marcelo Garcia, 33, a senior program manager at e-commerce giant Amazon. He and his wife, Melissa Richmond, a 33-year-old who heads strategy operations a non-profit organization, have submitted written offers on four houses over the past three weeks in Bellevue, a suburb just east of the city. All their offers, around $1 million apiece, have been outbid or rejected, despite being close to the asking prices. Now, at night they go driving past homes for sale that they have only seen online. “It’s a weird time,” says Ms. Richmond.

Washington was the first state to report a novel coronavirus death. While the number of Covid-19 cases in the state continues to grow, the rate is slower than other states thanks in part to early restrictions. But what also distinguishes Seattle from many other major cities is its fast-growing tech sector. While many industries are struggling, some of the city’s tech companies are getting a boost as millions of Americans comply with social distancing orders throughout the country.

Amazon has announced it plans to hire 100,000 new workers in the U.S. to deal with the crisis, while cloud-computing providers like Google and Microsoft, another Seattle-area giant, have experienced increased demand from workplace-collaboration software providers, streaming video service companies and online videogame makers.