In the Forbes piece “With Coronavirus On The Rise Again, Is The Housing Market Weakening? HouseCanary Co-Founder and CEO Jeremy Sicklick tells Forbes the resurgence of COVID-19 across the country is undermining the possibility of a V-shaped recovery and July 2020 is likely to be a turning point.
“This Covid-19 resurgence that we’re seeing is likely undermining the chances of a V-shaped recovery,” says HouseCanary CEO Jeremy Sicklick. “July 2020 is likely to mark a turning point.”
The latest HouseCanary market report, an analysis of public records and 200 multiple listing services, shows that for the week ending July 12 the volume of listings under contract tumbled 15.3% nationally from the preceding seven days. While home sale agreements remain above the bottom observed in April, in the first full week of July, they dropped to a level not seen since mid-May, per the report.
Broken down by price point, across the nation, the week-over-week contract volume for properties up to $200,000 slipped 11.9%. The largest decline, at 18.1%, was for homes asking between $400,000-$600,000.
According to Forbes, the overall decrease corresponds with the latest reading of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted mortgage purchase index, which declined 6% in the week ending July 10 (following waning gains, punctuated by small drops, in the last month or so). After several weeks of seemingly frenzied shopping, which in some cities resulted in bidding wars, homebuyers now appear to retreat from the national real estate market.
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