NOCO Real Estate May Market Report

During the stay at home order earlier this year it was difficult to predict what the post-shutdown market conditions would be like. And while the surprising activity that occurred during the shutdown led us to believe the market would weather the storm well as it did in 2008, we had to assume that the contracting economy, job loss, and low sales volume would increase the number of homes for sale and perhaps bring prices down slightly. What we didn’t count on was the fact that whatever additional home inventory came on the market due to job loss, was counteracted by fewer people wanting to show their homes in the midst of a pandemic. The result has been even lower numbers of homes for sale than we have ever seen. That combined with incredibly low-interest rates has caused the market to remain competitive and appreciate 1.9% in May despite an unprecedented 37% decrease in sales volume.

Typically we see a huge amount of sales occur in May and June with a slowing of activity in July and August. But this year may be different. We may see more activity occur later in the summer as things open up. Unless of course, an increase in COVID cases causes another shutdown, which would keep sales volume and inventory low and prices relatively flat or trending slightly upward as we saw earlier this year.