A house along New Street commemorates Memorial Day weekend, by displaying the American flag on Saturday afternoon. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Bidding wars over houses in Jefferson County are making it difficult for families to find affordable homes within the area.

Realtors are struggling to help their clients, as it becomes harder to buy properties.

“It makes it harder, because the agents we have here have lots of buyers and with fewer houses,” said Greentree Realty broker Jackie Lewis. “We are constantly getting into bidding wars, and you may or may not get the house because of that. So, then you have a buyer that you can’t find property for and you have to wait for the next one to come.”

Some people are paying in cash to outbid others within the housing market, which, in turn, makes it difficult for families to find houses that fit their needs.

“Unfortunately, right now in this bidding situation, cash seems to be king,” Lewis said.

Jessica Parsons was born and raised in Jefferson County, but when her family had to find a new place to live, they were forced to move 40 minutes away from the area.

“I’ve lived in Jefferson County probably for the last eight years. Our kids go to school there. That was the county where we wanted to live, but then when our landlord sold the house that we lived in we needed to find another place to rent, and that didn’t go well,” Parsons said. “When we started looking to buy, there’d be houses that would pop in our emails or that I would see on Zillow or the websites that you can use to find housing, and those would be gone within 24 hours.”

The Parsons have family in Jefferson County, but now they live almost 40 minutes away from not just their family, but their jobs and the schools they were attending.

“We now live in Hedgesville,” Parsons said. “So, if there’s an emergency our kids are sitting at the school waiting until one of us gets there. I did continue to drive them to school, just because it was the end of the school year, and we didn’t have the heart to change school the last six weeks, and even that was a struggle. $180 a week in gas to get my kids back to school just to not upset their normal routine.”

However, there isn’t much that can be done, except wait.

“It goes in cycles,” Lewis said. “In 2004, we had a similar situation with bidding wars and then the market tanked in 2008, but then people had a hard time selling their homes and there were lots of them on the market, so it’s just a cycle thing.”