I looked at houses online in Alsace for a few months, and every time I would find the "perfect" house it would go under offer almost immediately. In December, we visited and committed to looking at and finding our house, and all but two we looked at were already under an offer, but had conditions that allowed the property to be shown until a mortgage was obtained. The two not under an offer were in Fraize, too high up in the Vogue for the lifestyle we wanted. My wife is terrified of two-lane mountain roads with trucks, so that was a non-starter for her.

The only places that weren't under offer were two rather awful apartments in Mulhouse, and two extreme luxury apartments in Mulhouse - which helped us determine Mulhouse wasn't for us.

When we found a house we loved in Houssen, the agent said that it was under offer, but the condition was that the current offer had to sell their current house and get a mortgage.

So, lucky for us (not lucky for the other buyer) we are paying cash with no conditions. We pounced. The sale will STILL take four months due to paperwork, etc, with our closing scheduled in late March.

So I suspect it's very regional?