For a while last year, buying a house was like game of thrones.

Without all the murder, of course.

The pandemic fueled a home-buying frenzy, as many were desperate to trade an urban

life for suburban spaces, surrounded by nature, and spurred on by very low mortgage rates.

But there weren't enough homes on the market.

Demand was so intense that home builders had to get creative.

They started having these elaborate lotteries.

That's Connor Doherty.

He writes about housing for The New York Times.

He's recounting a story about Eric and Jezrelene Namyan, who were ready to buy a new

five-bedroom home in River Island's California.

They had the money for a down payment.

They were pre-qualified for a mortgage.

Typically, that's all you'd need in the new home market.

Buyers don't usually go through bidding wars, but in this case, they weren't the only ones

who wanted the house.

So the developer did something really unusual.

They were one of, I think, a dozen or something families that had been qualified to buy.

So then the builder said, OK, we're going to have a Zoom lottery.

All the potential buyers crowded on a Zoom call with their hopes resting on winning the lottery.

For the Namyans, the magic number was 32.

On the screen is a sales person in the dream home on a marble countertop.

...