Coronavirus and The Housing Market | Oliver Stephens | United Country Real Estate Great West Realty Inc.

Coronavirus and The Housing Market

The Real Estate market is not operating under a traditional manner during this Coronavirus pandemic. However, Realtors are working hard behind the scenes to ensure the industry continues to move the needle. Some clients have put buying or selling completely on pause, but not everyone has that option. Real Estate professionals are doing everything in their power to continue to help those who NEED to buy or sell. Some of these examples would be estate sales, divorce, relocation, purchasing a home before selling your own etc. Virtual tours and video walk-throughs are great but most prospective buyers most likely will not buy before they physically view the home themselves. Everyone should be taking the proper precautions to ensure the safety of everyone involved while touring homes. Spring is normally the busiest time of the year in the Real Estate industry especially here in Lambton County. Even with everything going on right now and what seems like an industry at a stand-still, in March we still saw an increase in the number of listings and also an increase in the avg sales price. Comparing the Residential market in March 2020 to March 2019 there was an 11.1% increase in the number of listings and a 15.01% increase in the avg. sales price! Those are significant increases especially considering how many people who were planning on buying or selling put things on hold until Covid19 settles down. Just like when a new product comes out and people are lined up outside a store I believe once the social distancing and covid19 precautions are lifted there will be a big demand in the housing market. People are currently scouring the internet looking at homes virtually but simply not ready to pull the trigger during these uncertain times. Once things are “back to normal” I believe we will see a very active Sarnia-Lambton Real Estate market throughout the rest of 2020.