Yeah if you don't live in an economically depressed part of the country, people are snapping up homes quickly. A couple friends were trying to buy houses in the past several months and they had to basically rush to close the sales because waiting a week to get things lined up wasn't really an option unless they wanted to lose out.
That's exactly what happened with the condo we liked. The listing went up Friday night, we found it around 4:00 PM Saturday and went to see it, and by the evening we were getting an offer ready because five others had already seen it and we knew it would go quick, so no time to consider anything. It's fucking nuts.
I'm just glad we have the option to live with my folks, who are right around the corner from us. So we can still get out of the rental game, stay in the same area, and wait as long as it takes for the right place to come along. We've been there before and they will let us use the top floor of the house, which is three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a living room. Not exactly cramped for space.
A couple of years ago, I pitched the idea of us moving back in and saving up for a good two-three years to buy a really awesome place, which everyone shot down. Now my wife is totally on board to do this and my parents are the ones who asked us to move back in if we don't find something.
...If they had listened to me several years ago, we would have already have found something much better than what we've seen.

But hey, maybe that lowball offer we put in on that condo will end up getting accepted. There's like a 10% chance of that happening, but hey!