How is COVID-19 impacting real estate?

by | Apr 17, 2020 | Market Update

With COVID-19 running rampant, many of us are left wondering how the real estate market is being affected.

Prefer to watch? Click here for the Facebook Live video!

COVID-19 in the Mortgage Industry

On March 28th, Henry went live on Facebook to discuss a loan officer‘s perspective about the impact COVID-19 is having on the mortgage industry (see below) as the mortgage market and real estate market are highly intertwined.

The Impact of COVID-19 on the real estate market between Feb & March

Now that we’re mid-way through April, we finally have statistics for what happened in the March real estate market as strict regulations were enacted in direct response to COVID-19. Let’s compare the real estate market between February and March of 2020:

February Bullet Points:

  • New homes for sale, homes under contract, and closed sales were up when compared to both January 2020 and February 2019
  • Homes actively available for sale numbered at 1,318 which was below the average for the previous 5 Februaries (avg: 1,645) continuing the inventory shortage.
  • Home sold in an average of 43 days. Average for the previous 5 Februaries was 51 days.
  • On average, homes sold for 97.7% of the original list price when compared to the 5-year February average of 96.9%.

March Bullet Points:

Now to compare how March 2020 numbers compared to February 2020 numbers:

  • There was a 30% increase of homes for sale
  • There was a 9.6% increase of homes that went under contract
  • There was a 29.8% increase of homes that sold
  • The median home price increased by 6.7%

Homes for Sale:
February: 1,318
March: 1,424

Average Time to Sell:
February: 43
March: 34

Average Sold to Original List Price Ratio:
February: 97.7%
March: 99%

And for perspective, let’s compare how March 2020’s number stack with the average of the previous 5 March markets:

Homes for sale:
5-year March average: 1,955
March 2020: 1,424

Days on Market (AKA how quickly homes sell)
5-year March average: 43
March 2020: 34

Average Sold to Original List Price Ratio
5-year March average: 97.7%
March 2020: 99%

Now how does March 2020 compare to March 2019?

  • New homes for sale went down by 10.2%
  • Homes under contract went down by 10.1%
  • Homes that sold went up by 24.7%

Summary of COVID-19 vs Real Estate:

While COVID-19 has been extreme disruptive in our daily lives, the numbers between February and March show that home prices remained strong, more homes came on the market, and homes took less time to sell indicating that the real estate market remains strong in Montgomery County, MD. While the mortgage market is still volatile, rates are still at historic lows.

Where did we get these data?
The data from this report is sourced from data gather by our local REALTOR database and MLS.
Download February 2020 Market Insight for Montgomery County, MD.
Download March 2020 Market Insight for Montgomery County, MD.