NAR or the National Association of REALTORS® surveyed a random sampling of their membership on June 24-26, 2020, and put it into a report titled Market Recovery Survey. They sampled close to 100,000 of their members. The statements presented below are their members’ opinions on different aspects of the recovery to the COVID-19 pandemic as it relates to real estate.
As a result of the need to protect the safety of buyers, sellers, and agents, REALTORS® are expecting to increase their demand for the following technologies used to market properties:
- 67% – Zoom or other video technology to communicate with clients
- 66% – virtual tours
- 63% – live virtual tours conducted by an agent using video
- 60% – virtual open houses
Nine out of every ten respondents said that some of the buyers have returned to the market or never left the market. If they are currently working with buyers, they are reporting that slightly more than half of the buyer’s timeline remained the same with about the same sense of urgency. However, 27 percent believe the buyers are more urgent.
Buyers with an increased timeline cited that their most popular reason is that the delay during the pandemic amplified their demand for a new home. Other buyers are realizing that features in newer homes would make their home life more comfortable. And other buyers want to purchase before a potential second wave of COVID-19 occurs.
During the week, the survey was taken, three out of four buyers saw the home in person physically while 26% did not.
About 2/3 of buyers are looking for the same features they were prior to COVID-19. New feature items include home office, space for the family, larger home in general, a place to exercise, and a bigger kitchen.
Most of the buyers are looking for the same type of home. But respondents did report that 13 percent of buyers are moving from multi-family to a single-family home with only about 1 percent headed in the opposite direction. This tracks with some data provided by CoreLogic that stated that Millennials are heading back out to the suburbs where their parents and grandparents lived.
Sellers were another category talked about with 89 percent of respondents saying some sellers have returned to the market or never left. Only 23 percent stated that there was an urgency to sell a home due to the pandemic.
As for commercial real estate, 2/3 of the REALTOR® respondents felt the demand for office space would decrease and 72 percent felt that retail space demand would go down.
The stats mentioned in this article pertain nationwide. To find out specifics in your market, call me Thierry Roche at (703) 303-4010.
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