When Pete and Taylor Bynarowicz recently sold their home, it seemed like they’d struck gold.

The young married couple had purchased their home in the Green Avenue neighborhood near Greenville in late 2019.

The Bynarowiczs would have stayed put, but Taylor, a physician, was starting her medical residency out of state, so the couple put their home on the market on the first weekend in April.

“We had a wedding to go to that weekend out of town, so we listed it and then left town on Friday, had showings over the weekend, and when we came back Sunday, we had six different offers,” said Pete Bynarowicz, who works as a product manager at a software company. “We made our final decision Monday morning.”

Over that single weekend, the Bynarowicz went under contract on an offer well over six figures of what they’d originally paid fewer than three years earlier.

But even with all that extra cash on hand, when they looked to buy a new house, they hit a wall.

“It’s been a nightmare,” Pete said. “The market is so crazy that we’re going to have to end up renting.”

And to be clear, the out-of-state market in which the Bynarowicz were looking to buy a home was not New York City, or Los Angeles, or Denver.

Even in relatively less sought-after markets like Indianapolis, the glut of demand is blocking out first-time home buyers. Meanwhile, established homeowners seeking to relocate or upgrade are faced with the daunting notion of reentering a market that is drastically different from what it looked like just two years ago.

“I’ve had sellers who were poised to pull the trigger, so to speak, but then they decided to table things because they just couldn’t find anything else and didn’t want to move for its own sake,” said Joan Herlong, chief executive officer of Joan Herlong & Associates | Sotheby’s International Realty.

Herlong said the market is harsh not only for first-time home buyers but also any buyers looking to spend less than $600,000 — in other words, the vast majority of them.

Average home prices, meanwhile, have jumped by about 20%, from $398,825 in 2021 to $472,742 today.

“In that price range it’s like crabs in a barrel, every man for himself,” Herlong said.

Buyers who find themselves in that “pressure cooker” of high competition, rejected offers and high prices are also at risk of buyer’s remorse, Herlong said, because they end up buying anything they can get their hands on.

“And you convince yourself it’s worth it, but then you move in and you realize that 10-out-of-10 home is actually more like a six- or a seven-out-of-10,” she said.

Locally, when it comes to inventory, days on market and price, things are only getting tougher.

But that’s only a look at the data. Anecdotally, there are plenty of other stressors on buyers.

Want to get a home inspection before buying a house? You might want to reconsider, because more and more often, buyers are opting to skip the inspection to make their offer more appealing for sellers.

Want to make an offer that is equal to the listing price? You’ll likely lose out to the many other buyers who offer well over asking price.

“We made three offers on houses, and each time the house we tried to buy went for over $100,000 more than the asking price, and the last house went for that amount and with no inspection,” Pete Bynarowicz said.

He and his wife recently made an offer of $415,000 on a house that was listed at $330,000 — a full $85,000 over asking price — and still got outbid.

“I just don’t think people outside of it have any idea how crazy it’s gotten,” he said.

Buyers in today’s market are at a multi-pronged disadvantage.

A growing trend of investors and corporations buying up starter homes – homes valued at around $300,000 or less – and turning them into rental properties is draining inventory.

Supply chain and material shortages have led to slowdown in new-home construction.

“With construction still slowed by supply chain issues and higher material costs, existing homes will be in even greater demand,” noted Jeff Cook’s South Carolina real estate market update for Q1 of 2022.

A record number of homeowners also opted to refinance their mortgages at the start of the pandemic, which incentivizes them not to sell for at least five years.

And then there’s the simple reality that even though more people are putting their home-buying plans on pause, that doesn’t stop the pool of would-be buyers from increasing.

“The line just keeps getting longer,” Pete Bynarowicz said. “And there’s still a ton of people who’ve been waiting a long time already.”

For those who may have seen the Zillow estimate of their home’s value skyrocket and now may be tempted to sell and cash in on the hot market, local realtors advise caution against rash selling, lest they be tossed back into the shark pit on the other side.

And for young couples like the Bynarowiczs and other home buyers who are already treading those waters, renting may be the only option for the foreseeable future.

“It almost feels like the way the market is, we’ll never be able to buy again,” Pete Bynarowicz said.

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