Triangle sellers pulling homes from the market due to COVID-19 fears and restrictions
This story was updated on Friday, Mar. 27, 2020.
The coronavirus pandemic has staggered the Triangle’s residential real estate market, which until the beginning of March had seemed to be invincible, local property experts say.
Stacey Anfindsen, a residential market analyst who runs the Triangle Area Residential Report, says his most recent report found that:
▪ In the first week of March the number of withdrawn listings increased by 288%. The second week saw a 293% increase in homes withdrawn from the market; and the third week suffered a stunning 656% increase in homes withdrawn.
▪ Showings in the third week of March were down by a third of what they were a year ago in one of the busiest seasons for home buying and selling.
▪ The number of houses listed fell by 20% in the second week of March, then stayed flat.
▪ Pending house listings were up 25% in the first week, lowered to 18% the second week, then fell by almost a quarter in the third week.
“I have historically given [withdrawn listings] minimal emphasis due to variances in reasons for withdrawing from the market,” Andfindsen said. “In my opinion, this is where COVID is having the greatest influence on seller behavior.”
“Before all this happened, in January and February the home market was running on all cylinders,” says Amanda Hoyle, the Triangle’s regional director for Metrostudy, a national residential construction data firm. “These were very strong months and we were expecting a very strong spring sales quarter.”
On-site traffic at sales centers and model homes is way down and half of the homebuilders Hoyle surveyed said they had seen a decrease in contract sales.
Surprisingly, the number of pending home sales is still over 7,000 units for the quarter, higher than Hoyle was expecting.
“I think a lot of people at the last minute were rushing out and trying to get some deals on the table in case something did happen,” Hoyle said.
Hoyle believes the slowdown in the number of homes under contract will create pent-up demand that will create momentum for the rest of the year — if the virus subsides and restrictions are lifted.
Despite the dropoff in physical sales, interest in the Triangle market remains strong: The weekly average number of virtual home tours via the Zillow app were up 237% from February, according to Amanda Pendleton, a Zillow spokeswoman.
The Charlotte Observer reports that the state’s Association of Realtors wrote a letter to Gov. Roy Cooper’s office last week asking the governor to declare real estate an “essential” business if he issues a shelter-in-place order. The organization said Monday that it hasn’t received a response yet, the Observer reported.
The City of Durham’s stay-at-home order limits movement outside people’s homes except for essential jobs and tasks, cutting down on real estate activity except for appraisal and title services, according to the city.
“I think this is an error,” said Otto Cedeno, the owner of Movil Realty, an independent Durham real estate firm. “The real estate industry is the base of all other industries. If that stops, everything stops. I think [the city] rushed this.”
Cedeno’s clients were already being shown homes via video calls and the firm’s own mobile app, but under the stay-at-home order, agents say they cannot go out and show houses even virtually.
Shelter-in-place orders have also been issued by Wake and Orange counties.
However, the shelter-in-place orders in these counties however permit full real estate services as essential business.
Margaret Struble, a real estate agent for RE/MAX United in Cary, says agents are on a “wait and see” status. She’s hopeful that the industry here will bounce back after the order is lifted.
“We anticipate interest rates to stay low for quite some time,” Struble said. “I think once this shelter-in-place order is lifted with interest rates as they are, there are going to be a lot of buyers out there and they’ll be trying to make up for lost time.”
