The U.S. real estate market is booming, making it a surprising oasis amid the pandemic. In fact, the market continues to thrive due to record low mortgage interest rates and the ability to work from home.
Some experts predict that national home prices are predicted to increase by 4.1% over the next three years on average.
In this article, we’ll talk about the U.S. cities that maintained a stable economy, had a solid job market, and maintained affordable home prices — despite the pandemic.
Before the pandemic, the U.S. economy was riding a decade-long wave of expansion. But in the spring, as the virus began to take hold of the country, policymakers responded to prevent the housing market from nosediving.
Then came the backlash: the real estate market slumped during the spring lockdown period, only to rebound dramatically over the summer. Since July, new home sales have hovered between 38% and 48% higher than last year:
Lawrence Yun, the Chief Economist for the National Association of Realtors (NAR) predicts that “existing home sales in 2020 likely will total 5.4 million, a gain of 1.1% from last year. Sales of new houses probably will rise by 17% to 800,000.”
Furthermore, the trends in the median listing price across the nation jumped from $300,000 to $350,000 from January 2020 to September 2020. This rise in listing prices confirms buyer demand is also on the rise.
Although the overall picture for the American real estate market isn’t showing signs of distress, some cities provide safer investments and more promising returns than others.
Most people in these regions work for technology companies and universities and were able to seamlessly transition from the office to working from home. Corporate giants like Apple and Facebook still paid their key employees a full salary even if they couldn’t do their jobs from home.
We’ve highlighted a few of the best opportunities for buyers, whether your clients are looking for a residence in the U.S. or for an investment opportunity.
More examples are Olympia, Washington; Gainesville, Florida and Albany, New York.
Charlotte, North Carolina
The city is full of entrepreneurs, has a booming economy, and is a major hub for financial service firms. Both home values and the job rate continue to grow despite the virus and the shutdown. Plus, according to Wallet Investor, there will be a major jump in home value in the next five to 10 years here.
The city is full of entrepreneurs, has a booming economy, and is a major hub for financial service firms. Both home values and the job rate continue to grow despite the virus and the shutdown. Plus, according to Wallet Investor, there will be a major jump in home value in the next five to 10 years here.
Several parts of Florida rely largely on tourism and hospitality-related jobs to bring in significant revenue, but that’s not the case with Tampa. Because of stable industries like agriculture, financial services, and health care, the local economy, and therefore housing markets haven’t taken a hit. Also, the predictions in home values within the next decade look promising.
Besides the state capital, Sacramento has affordable home prices for a big city in California. And it’s only about an hour north of San Francisco. When the lockdown took effect, many Bay Area employees started working from home. And this will be the case for the foreseeable future. As such, many are looking to Sacramento as a potential city to buy a home in. Therefore, it’s a good time to get in while the prices are still low.
During the pandemic, Jacksonville’s housing market remained stable and unemployment rates fared much better than other parts of the nation. Also, the local industries and great health care systems kept this city afloat. With a median home price that’s 15% lower than the nation’s along with positive one to 10-year forecasts, it could be an opportune time to buy a home here.
Even though the overall picture for the nation’s real estate market isn’t showing signs of distress, the pandemic is disproportionally affecting low-income communities.
Towns whose economy largely relies on revenue from tourism, hospitality, oil and gas, transportation and travel services are much more vulnerable to pandemic fall-out. Some of the cities most affected include Las Vegas, Nevada, Atlanta City, New Jersey, Kahului, Hawaii, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Orlando, Florida.
The swell in average daily COVID cases during November 2020 in the Midwest, Southwest, and some Mid-Northern regions of the U.S. are currently affecting markets in those areas while citizens battle with high infection rates.
The virus created a financial hardship for half of the households living in America’s largest cities — New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston. Millions of Americans are struggling to make their next rent payment and experts say this imbalance is widening the gap between the wealthy and the poor.
Thankfully, things haven’t gotten as bad as we initially feared and many investors are breathing a sigh of relief and planning for the new year.
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