U.S. Housing Market Among Quickest Sectors to Recover

This morning the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released data about the sales of single-family homes, condominiums and co-ops. Sales of these existing homes skyrocketed in July and rose 24.7 percent across the country from June to July and 8.7 percent since July 2019. The national median sales price of existing homes has also risen - it is up 8.5 percent from July 2019 at $304,100. This is the first time ever that the national median sales price of existing homes has surpassed $300,000.

In 10 days I will be revisiting our local activity numbers for the Sacramento / Folsom / Roseville region. When I did in depth research into these numbers 3 weeks ago, I found that our local market reflects what NAR is reporting nationally for the same time period. As a reminder, in June 2020 we had a 1.36 months supply of homes in the region. In July 2020, that supply number had dropped all the way down to 0.876. In other words, our local market became significantly more competitive from June to July. August has seen a slight easing of activity, but it continues to remain incredibly competitive for buyers.

When the coronavirus pandemic first impacted us back in March, I received many emails, calls and texts from buyers interested in purchasing if values began to drop. This activity was so abnormally high for me, that I suspected there was high demand across the region. A reduction in values did not happen. Instead, interest rates dropped like a stone from already low rates to hard-to-believe historically low rates. Many of the buyers I had heard from took advantage of these changes in circumstances, and based on NAR’s data it looks like this has occurred across the country in 96 percent of all localized housing markets.

NAR’s chief economist Lawrence Yun spoke on the subject saying, “The housing market is well past the recovery phase and is now booming with higher home sales compared to the pre-pandemic days. With the sizable shift in remote work, current homeowners are looking for larger homes and this will lead to a secondary level of demand even into 2021.”

What remains to be seen is whether or not the high unemployment rate will have any negative impact on the housing market. And there are the more than 20 million Americans that have been hardest hit by the recession and face eviction or foreclosure. Again, will this have any negative impact on the housing market? If you’re experiencing eviction or foreclosure hardship, I suggest reaching out to trusted resources as soon as you can. Feel free to call, email or text with any real estate questions you may have.