How Will Covid-19 Impact Our Housing Market?

The DBJ ran a great story on this topic on Tuesday. It was reported that "A large volume of deals continued to get done over the weekend, a testament to the sheer demand for homes in Denver." I had 5 buyers that I know of who were out looking at homes last weekend.

The biggest worry of real estate agents mentioned in the story is what happens if owners decide NOT to list their home for sale? If this happens and buyer demand does not drop, bidding wars will only intensify.

I know that employees in the restaurant, retail, fitness, tourism, hospitality sectors are losing their jobs by the thousands every day currently and this SUCKS! These workers will be severely impacted by the virus and I expect many of them will have a hard time paying rent in April and/or May as I am girding for this possibility for my tenants who live in one of our four-plexes near CO Springs.

But, I don't think that the virus will impact home sales or prices as long as fear and panic don't sweep through. Why? Most homeowners and potential buyers have higher-paying jobs in sectors that are not being impacted by the virus. For example, I don't see medical professionals being laid off, the same with IT, tech, and engineers, ditto for financial professionals, teachers, managers, etc. These people are our clients and I believe they are in very little danger of losing their jobs if we can halt the growth rate of the disease in the next 2 or 3 weeks and hopefully Dr. Roizen is correct.

So, we must help keep our clients calm, cool, and collected with facts and reason. Are they really in danger of losing their job? Most likely not! Remind them of this.