Real Estate Market Essay Example

Residential, commercial, industrial, land, and residential are the four types of real estate. Residential real estate is not only already built homes but for new construction homes too. The COVID-19 pandemic began and not only changed our daily lives and real estate.  The real estate statistics changed from the beginning of 2020 to the end. Real estate agents had to start following different procedures to show a house. While also getting creative on the way they show houses. The housing environment and amenities people are looking for in home has changed since the pandemic has started. 

At the beginning of 2020 before the COVID-19 Pandemic, the real estate market was doing incredibly well. The rates were already higher than 2019 while also having good a stable market. According to an article written by Shawn Tully, for the first 11 weeks through mid-march, the number of houses that secured rate commitments averaged 15% above 2019 already stronger levels. (Tully). Houses were going up for sale just like normal. Once the pandemic started in April everything changed. “Home sales in April and May have dropped to their lowest levels since the housing and financial crisis that began in 2007 with many homeowners hesitant to sell in the wake of the pandemic” (Gason). People became scared to sell during the pandemic because nobody knew what was going to happen. People thought that if they did put their house for sale nobody would buy it. If people did put their houses up for sale there was a fear of not being able to find another one. “On average prices are rising 7% to 8% Nationwide over this time last year there was notching new records by the week. At the same time data from April shows in alarming Spike and mortgage equivalencies.” (Tully). Prices of home skyrocketed to a place where it wasn’t worth it to try and buy a house. As the pandemic still stayed around people became more comfortable with selling their homes. According to an article written by Amber Bishop, By July the real estate market was seeing record highs in the statewide sales and the trend is continuing even in October (Bishop). Sales of homes were spiking and doing better than years before. “According to data from Illinois realtors, statewide home sales totaled 19.024 homes sold in July, which is a 14.6% increase from July of 2019” (Bishop). As people began to buy houses the mortgage rates began to climb. Mortgage rates will begin to rise as we expected they will as the economy bounces back you might see that hurt half-price marketing more and since a lot of manufacturing is concentrated in areas where real estate is relatively affordable, you may see these markets outperform.” (Passy). Now, as we enter 2021 houses are going up for sale and selling quickly. Many houses now have several offers on the table. There is still not a huge number of houses for sale but the ones that are selling quickly and for more than they would have before. “The Supply of real estate inventory has been low as well which allows for properties to have multiple bids and sell within hours of being on the market” (Bishop).

The process of buying a house changed. Many people didn't feel comfortable letting people into their homes. “Buyer also reduced their home buying activity. Home showings per listing in the US were down over 40% in April compared to the same period last year”(Gason). Technologies made a big impact on how showing houses happened. Many real estate agents would go into homes and video chat with the buyers to show home. Many people bought houses without actually stepping foot inside of them. “Technology promise of the mid-1990s freeing workers from their desks has come to an age of 2020 as the coronavirus incident quarantined as Force employees working from home” (Taylor). Rural areas became very popular for real estate agents to show houses in. “Real Estate Investors on the frontline of the housing market are rushing to rural markets in anticipation of the population shift towards those markets” (Passy). People were starting to move because of new job opportunities. Even though many companies went to an online platform, people were still moving to where their companies were. “Tends show Americans are still moving where businesses move despite the work-from-home trend accelerated covid-19” (Taylor). People were also moving because many people were out of jobs once the pandemic started. Some had to downsize their homes to afford where they were living. “Just buy some improvements and they called to me that heightened unemployment and economic uncertainty could affect the housing market through 2020 and Beyond” (Gascon). 

So, the big questions are where are people moving and what are they looking for? People wanted to move to smaller rural cities where not many people were around. “What strikes me out of the whole coronavirus experience is that the pleasure of living in a nice city is diminished by the fear of being close to other people,'' said Robert Shiller” (Tully). People became scared to live in big cities where the virus was more popular. New York, Long Island, northern New Jersey. Honolulu, Chicago , and Philadelphia, we're not at the top of the best places to move this year. America's net emotional immigration away from high-priced real estate markets as well as high lockdowns on urban areas” (Taylor). With a wider community of people working from home now, big cities were not a place many people wanted to live anymore. Many Customers have condos in the city, but now both husband and wife are working at home so to get more space and enjoy a backyard they’re buying a second home” (Tully). People were looking for different amenities now while home shopping. “Based on realtor.com surveys of consumers we learned that home Shoppers are looking for more space, quieter neighborhoods, office spaces, newer kitchens , and access to the outdoors. Traits which have received interest in the suburbs and smaller metro areas” (Taylor). The younger generation started making an impact on the housing market. “American demographics are screwing younger as the millennial generation -the largest in us history- is finally embracing their ownership” (Taylor). “Rates are so low right now because of the pandemic it made it easy for the younger generations to get a loan to buy a house” (Tully). 

So buying a house right now could be the right thing for you.  Real estate has changed so much over the past year. The real estate market is high right now and all the statistics have changed since 2019. The way of buying a home is much different than it was before. More people are looking for houses in rural areas than in cities.