March 15, 2020
As the Coronavirus pandemic hits the stock market & hospitality industry, there have been questions of how it will impact real estate. After all, buying a home doesn't involve going out in a crowd.
The early returns seem to be that buyers are pausing a bit, as we see inventory creep up from the extremely low levels we've seen for the past year or so.
6 months is considered a "balanced" market. Anything below about 3-4 months or so is a seller's market and above 8 months or so is a buyer's market.
Our inventory, especially below $300k or so, is still very low. But it's definitely moving north. From $300k-$500k, we are getting closer to buyers market territory, and are already there over $500k.
Even given this, as of March 1, we counted over 60 subdivisions with under 3 months inventory. That's a big list of areas with very little on the market.
It's tough to say what the lasting impact will be, because sellers might delay putting their homes on the market, which would effectively freeze inventory where it is if buyers continue to hesitate buying. All in all, we started out with so little on the market that an uptick in inventory is actually a good thing, so long as it doesn't become a precipitous rise.
We've said for quite some time that this seller's market will eventually turn, and it appears that has begun.
