I hope you and your family are staying healthy and safe. For us it’s been a rough few months with Mario’s mom getting sick and passing away on May 30th. Our kids all came home in May to be with their grandma and ended up staying till just last week. It was great having them here with us and much needed during such a hard time. Now that they have went home, we are slowly getting back to a sense of normalcy with daily life. The new normal anyways. Still hoping things begin to open up more, especially dine-in eating. It feels like forever since we have been to a nice restaurant. One thing that is almost back to normal is the real estate market. Below is some information on how things are shaping up around the country with three of the latest reports showing how strong the housing market is.
The residential real estate market is remaining resilient as the country still struggles to beat the COVID-19 pandemic. Three separate reports recently revealed how the housing market is still showing growth. Here’s a look at each one.
1. Ivy Zelman’s Real Estate Broker Survey
The survey explains that purchaser demand remains strong:
“This month’s overall homebuyer demand rating…was easily the strongest sequential gain in our survey history…Strength continues to be led by the entry-level…While high-end demand is less robust in an absolute sense, there has also been relative improvement, with contacts attributing incremental improvement to the stock market’s rebound, record low mortgage rates and luxury customers trading out of high-priced cities.”
2. The National Association of Home Builders Housing Market Index
The index reveals that builder confidence has returned to levels last seen prior to the pandemic:
“In a strong signal that the housing market is ready to lead a post-COVID economic recovery, builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes jumped 14 points to 72 in July, according to the latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). The HMI now stands at the solid pre-pandemic reading in March before the outbreak affected much of the nation.”
3. The realtor.com Housing Market Recovery Index
This index leverages a weighted average of four key components of the housing industry, tracking each of the following:
- Housing Demand – Growth in online search activity
- Home Price – Growth in asking prices
- Housing Supply – Growth of new listings
- Pace of Sales – Difference in time-on-market
It then compares the current status “to the last week of January 2020 market trend, as a baseline for pre-COVID market growth. The overall index is set to 100 in this baseline period. The higher a market’s index value, the higher its recovery and vice versa.”
The latest results came in at 101, with realtor.com explaining:
“The U.S. Housing Market has recovered from the immediate disruption caused by the COVID pandemic and returned to January 2020 growth levels.”
Bottom Line
Real estate brokers, home builders, and industry data all agree that the housing market has surged back to pre-COVID levels, showing growth, strength, and incredible resilience.
Call or message us if there is anything we can ever do for you. We would be happy to help.
Mario and Angelina Perales