Buying and Selling a Home During the Pandemic By Jeff Falk
W
e continue to learn new things about the Coronavirus, nearly every day. Here’s what we have come to know about COVID-19’s effect on the local economy: Activity is essential to businesses’ wellbeing, and one of the ways to slow the spread of the virus is inactivity and mitigation. The same is true of the local housing market, to a degree. The Coronavirus has slowed – but not crippled – the central Pennsylvania and Harrisburg real estate markets, creating a need for homes, lowering interest rates and dashing consumer confidence. In effect, it has created a cautious, or wait-and-see approach. Pete Weigher, owner and president of TeamPete Realty Services, and Joy Daniels, owner of Joy Daniels Real Estate Group, are two of Harrisburg’s top real estate agents and experts on the local housing market in central Pennsylvania. “The COVID crisis created an environment that no one had ever encountered before,” says Daniels. “We had tremendous restrictions placed on our industry that prevented in-person activity, but buyers and sellers still had a need to move. This required great adaptation by brokers and clients, as to how we were going to reach their goals. The underlying reasons for sellers needing to sell and buyers needing to buy were not changed by the pandemic. Although the uncertainty created by the pandemic did cause people to delay their plans. “Once the restrictions on real estate activities and the public were lessened, our industry was able to resume many activities,” adds Daniels. “In essence, the normal spring market was delayed by several weeks and now all that activity has shifted to the summer and fall. We encountered a great jump in activity once the agents were able to resume in-person activities and the consumer confidence in safety measures increased. Buyers who had been stymied are now ready to 8 HARRISBURG MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2020
buy, but many sellers are still afraid and not ready to put their homes on the market.” “There are great opportunities out there,” says Weigher. “It’s a matter of understanding your expectations and the forces of supply and demand. The supply is lower in some price ranges. It’s a matter of taking a look at it. Right now, interest rates are less than three percent. In many cases, it can be the perfect storm.” From Jan. 1 of this year to Aug. 1, 2020, in Dauphin and Cumberland counties, there were 576 fewer real-estate closings compared to the same period last year. In 2019, the number of closings in the two counties, between January and August, stood at 4,174, and in 2018, they were numbered at 4,133. This year, there have been 3,598 real-estate closings in Dauphin and Cumberland counties. “What COVID-19 has done to the market is lower the inventory and made the demand higher,” says Weigher. “You’re seeing more competing offers. There has been a rebound over the last three months, and the market has been very active. I think there was some pent-up demand. That, along with the interest rates, makes it a great time to explore real-estate options.” “I would characterize the market as a very strong sellers’ market at this time,” says Daniels. “We’re seeing large volumes of homes being sold. The demand is high because the supply is low, limiting the number of homes on the market, which has created a very competitive market for buyers.” We are now seven months into this Coronavirus crisis, and it seems that the local housing market is beginning to loosen, in conjuction with many of the societal restrictions. In the first two months of 2020, before the full impact of COVID-19 was understood, it was shaping up to be a fairly typical real estate year.
