Despite the pandemic, buyers are out there.
A flood of headlines this week and last appears to confirm an insatiable appetite for real estate, hindered only by historically low inventory and out-of-control bidding wars.
According to a Zillow survey on Friday, homes are typically selling just 30 days after hitting the market. It's the shortest span ever recorded and it's resulting in fewer price cuts and rising home prices.
Meanwhile, in a story on Thursday, Kearns also reported that record-low mortgage rates have fueled home sales to pass pre-pandemic levels. It's the first time since the country went into regional lockdowns in March that sales have topped January and February levels. The spike in sales, Kearns reported, comes as the fixed-rate for a 30-year mortgage dipped below 3 percent for the first time in 50 years.
That return to normalcy with regard to home sales, however, comes amidst historically low inventory, prompting a remarkable rise in bidding wars, Kearns reported last week. In fact, more than half of all offers submitted by Redfin agents faced competition in June, according to a survey by the national real estate brokerage. It's the second consecutive month where bidding wars were more common than not.
All of which is to say that, where there is chaos, there's opportunity. Indeed, during a virtual Inman Town Hall on Thursday, Jorge Guerra Jr., the president and CEO of Florida's Real Estate Sales Force and the chairman of the Miami Association of REALTORS®, said of big disruptive trends that, 'where there are shifts, there's more money to be made.'
'We will evolve, and we will innovate,' Guerra said, 'and we've seen that happen like never before.'
