>I'm not aware of anyone who claims that the housing market is uncompetitive in the economic sense.
You guys aren't even talking about the same thing. The parent post is claiming that "there's no such thing as price gouging", period.
What's the ratio like?
> Even if the bids are rejected it still has a large effect on pricing
If they put in a bunch of bids that end up being rejected, doesn't that work in the opposite direction? If you're selling something on craigslist and you get spammed with a bunch of lowball offers, you're not going to think your widget is more valuable. If anything it's going to make you have second thoughts about your original price and make you want to lower it.