How Has the Virus Impacted the 2020 Greater Boston Real Estate Market?
by Tania Wu, real estate agent and investor
This might seem counter-intuitive given the virus, but most of the Greater Boston market has not seen major price declines yet, according to home price index charts below.
Every week I have been making offers for clients and almost all transactions for entry-level or upsizer homes received multiple offers. The properties I dealt with earlier this week received 8-14 offers and many sold within 3-4 days of being on the market. I think this is primarily due to the fact that, although the number of buyers has somewhat reduced, the number of homes for sale has also reduced.
Most sellers of entry-level homes or upsizer homes don't necessarily need to sell at this particular moment since they have a place to live. So they are in a good position to keep their homes if they feel intimidated by the virus. Many buyers, on the other hand, do have a critical need to buy a home instead of renting, or upgrading to a bigger home to accommodate their growing family. Therefore, although open houses have been cancelled and converted into private and virtual showings, homes have still been selling really fast in the past few weeks (including this past 7 days) due to the demand substantially outweighing the supply.
The high demand and low supply story is nothing new in Boston, and the Boston market has historically known to be recession proof. How do we respond to the current unprecedented crisis? Those who need a place to live will continue to do everything they can to meet their needs.
As real estate professionals, we do our best to minimize risk including sanitizing everything and maintaining the most social distance between individuals. Private showings can only accommodate one group at a time, and seller's agents don't appear at showings as long as the buyer's agent can be there to meet their clients. Housing is an essential need, and for many real estate professionals, our clients are like our dear friends and family. If they do have an essential need, we do our best to help them while protecting each other in any way we can.
And we must never forget, there is always hope. In times for crisis, we must stay strong and focus on our loved ones.