In this article, let’s talk about data and have a look at the investments from Canada, Europe and Dubai, UAE. At Estati, we connect the world and various off-market real estate opportunities.
The forecast comes less than a week after the Bank of Canada cut interest rates by 50 basis points, pushing mortgage rates to their lowest level in more than two years. Many expected the bank to cut further, but experts predicted a more modest cut of just 1.5 percentage points. There have been reports of homebuyers being sidelined and disadvantaged – distancing evidence of the impact of the rate cut, which has dampened home sales in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and other big cities.
In downtown Toronto, Realtors Realtors Realty is already watching panicked sellers worry that home values are falling as offers pour in that go beyond what they once were. While house sales have picked up in the past two weeks, Callender is urging sellers to move forward and bet that it will soon be back to normal. The busy spring sales season, when sellers and agents expect a brisk spring sale for the first time in years, is no exception.
Let’s talk data
Four in five estate agents surveyed by the National Association of Realtors in early April said they saw fewer homes on the market than last year.
The latest data from the housing market is already showing signs of that in the United States. Only half of Americans say they think now is a good time to buy a home – the lowest level since Gallup began tracking people’s sentiment about real estate in 1978.
Immediately after the pandemic, new listings and home sales dropped by as much as 70 percent, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. New listings for single-family homes in the United States dropped by nearly 40 percent in the immediate aftermath of the outbreak, and in some cases by as much as 80 percent.
A report by ATTOM Data Solutions concluded that the housing market in Northeast Florida is most vulnerable, according to data from the National Association of Realtors and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Listing your property
Despite the difficulties in listing and completing home sales, many fundamentals in the housing market are strong, property experts say. As a result, many economists say the US is not heading for another housing crash. The 2008 mortgage crisis, when so many people couldn’t get a mortgage, was “one of the worst housing crises since the Great Depression,” said Robert Brendon Detwiler, a Florida real estate agent. People have more access to credit than they did before the last recession, and most of today’s mortgages have strict underwriting standards, which was not the case in 2010, 2008, or even the early 2000s, “Detwilers said.
As more homeowners struggle to pay their mortgages, more homes are being pushed out of the market, according to data from the National Association of Realtors.
The traditional indicator of the housing market is based on closed trades, meaning that the March sales data largely reflect deals that have been done in trust. Zillow’s data provides a snapshot of the number of homes for sale and so-called “pending sales,” or when buyers enter trustees. For the week ending April 19, more than 1,000 homes in the United States were signed or put into custody by buyers, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Judging by the steep decline – away from listings – few owners are putting their homes up for sale or pulling them directly from the market. Some estate agents say sellers don’t want people to visit their homes because of the global pandemic.
Others simply don’t have to sell, but are holding back to see how the current situation unfolds. For many in the industry, it is unclear how the search for the new normal will continue. Before the Coronavirus pandemic broke out, the housing market in Alabama was in full swing.
In the Birmingham-Hoover metro area, ACRE said construction starts, as measured by building permits, were 23.2 per cent higher than a year ago. In fact, the rate of new construction in Alabama rose 22.4 percent in the first quarter of this year, compared with 18.5 percent a year earlier, a much higher rate than when the pandemic struck, said David D. Miller, director of the Alabama Department of Housing and Community Development.
Regarding international investments, we see a lot of requests for townhouses in Dubai. You can see what we have in mind when talking about Dubai Bluewaters Building 2 – a beautiful investment! Or SLS Dubai hotel!
Recession impacts
When the 2008 recession hit, the market was awash with homes that no one wanted, and the housing market almost ground to a halt as home orders neared the third straight month. While sales of single-family homes have remained stable since the pandemic, some markets have not fared so well.
For years I have been writing about technological changes in the real estate industry. In-person home shows were banned in some markets, while much of the real estate industry switched to digital solutions to keep the market moving.
Homebuyers are comfortable buying homes without seeing them, but what role will estate agents play on the buying side? Real estate agents are now using 360-degree technology to take a more active role in the home buying process than ever before.