Date Archives: April 2020

Northeast, Florida markets fare the worst

Texas biggest markets – including Dallas-Ft Worth – are among the metro areas least likely to see a major housing market shakeout from the pandemic.   Housing markets that will be most negatively affected by the COVID-19 infections and resulting in economic recession are mostly in the Northeast and Florida, according to a new report by analysts at Attom Data Solutions.   Researchers looked at almost 500 home markets across the country and rated them based on foreclosures, homeowner equity, wages and other factors.  "Texas has ten of the 50 least vulnerable counties from among the 483 included in the report," Attom Data analysts said.  "The 10 counties in Texas include three in the Dallas area (Dallas, Collin and Tarrant).

• Dallas Morning News, April 6, 2020

The minute that people are legally allowed to take a physical tour, the market is going to boom. It's like when the new iPhone comes out. We want and expect lines out the door, just no tents, please.   People will be lined up at the doors of those homes they have obsessed over for months.  In the meantime, real estate professionals are utilizing virtual tours to keep buyers excited, and it is working, and relationships are getting back to the core — the heart.  We are entering what is usually the busiest season of real estate, that usually lasts through the end of the summer. I am confident that the busy season will last through the fall, and possibly through the winter.  Momentum is building, so there is no need to fear putting your home on the market.  Now is our chance to build and maintain confidence in the real estate market, because as soon as our world begins to shift back into normalcy, the market will be at its height.

• Fox Business, April 5, 2020

North Texas home sellers are retreating in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Asking prices for homes listed for sale in Dallas-Fort Worth fell 3% in March from a year ago — a sign of what might be to come in the next month or two.  The median D-FW list price with Realtor.com was $342,545.  Total area listings were down 10% from March 2019.

"Our inventory and listing data can provide some early insight into how housing markets may be impacted by COVID-19, but the situation and reactions to it are still rapidly evolving," Realtor.com chief economist Danielle Hale said in the new report. "The U.S. housing market had a good start to the year.

"Despite still-limited homes for sale, buyers were buying and builders were building," she said. "The pandemic and virus-fighting measures appear to be disrupting that initial momentum as both buyers and sellers adopt a more cautious posture."

Real estate agents have reported a sharp decline in homebuyer traffic, have canceled open houses and are doing more business online to cope with the coronavirus epidemic.   The decline in home buying activity caused by the pandemic is coming at the time of year the housing market typically takes off.  The full impact of the COVID-19 infections, resulting layoffs and expected economic recession likely won't be known for several months.

"April and May are going to be the telling months," said Dr. James Gaines, chief economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. "The first half of March ,we were still gearing up for all the shelter in place."

• Dallas Morning News, April 6, 2020