May 11, 2020
Will there be a Spring market this year? Many are saying, “Of course not! This is a pandemic! Houses aren’t selling!”
But I say, “Numbers don’t lie.”
Historically in Bergen County, we have seen more homes come on the market once the warm weather appears – April, May, and June. Many people time a move to coincide with the school year and again, we typically see more moves in June, July, and August than other months. Let’s take a look at what is happening in today’s “Pandemic” Spring Market:
This chart compares last year (2019) with this year, starting with Week 2 of quarantine. You can clearly see that the number of homes coming on the market and the number of sellers accepting offers are far lower than last year. You can ALSO see that homes are still selling – and that the number of homes coming on the market and the number of sellers accepting offers are climbing as we move into warmer weather.
To go one step further, we fully expect that, once restrictions loosen up, the real estate market will surge forward with a vengeance. Pent-up demand and low interest rates continue to drive it, just as they did until about 50 days ago. (Yes, it was just back in March that we had the healthiest real estate market in 13 years!)
Our experience of selling homes at this time is not unique; there are plenty of REALTORS® listing and selling homes RIGHT NOW. We are doing business in new and different ways, but we are still selling homes. We have to be very careful of the narrative we tell ourselves – especially now. There is no cause for despair and there are brighter days ahead. The numbers don’t lie.
