Virus casts a dark cloud over once-thriving home market - Boston Herald

When Rebeka McBride and her husband put their home in Washington state on the market in early March, the coronavirus outbreak was just taking hold in the United States. They managed to hold two open houses and a smattering of private viewings before accepting an offer.

But with the U.S. economy now collapsing, the family is less confident about their move to a Minneapolis suburb, where McBride sees brighter job prospects in her field of medical device research. She had worried that their buyer would pull out before closing, but they finalized the sale Thursday. And for her own new home, she’s using virtual tours but isn’t inclined to make an offer without seeing a home in person. Worse, McBride is suddenly worried about job prospects amid mass layoffs, forcing a reassessment of what she and her husband can afford.

“I’m nervous the layoffs and change in economy will cause the bottom to fall out,” said McBride, the mother of a 4-year-old.

McBride is among many sellers and buyers, in the United States as well as in Europe, caught in the grip of a pandemic that has upended the housing market just as it was entering the busy spring season.

Shutdown orders have halted open houses and complicated property viewings. Sellers are delaying listings or yanking their properties off the market. Prospective buyers are dropping out, some of them after losing jobs.

Agents are turning to virtual tours, electronic signatures and “drive-through” closings, where paperwork is completed through car windows. Where it’s still allowed, buyers and agents are entering homes separately, armed with hand sanitizers and wipes.

Mortgage applications to buy a home fell 12% in the week that ended on April 3 compared with the previous week — and were a stunning 33% lower than in the same week last year, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported. Home buying applications are at their lowest level since 2015, the MBA said.

The mortgage industry itself is reeling as hundreds of thousands of Americans have temporarily stopped paying their mortgages under the federal coronavirus relief bill. The MBA is among several housing industry groups that have called for federal aid for mortgage servicers, who handle paperwork for lenders.

A collapse of sales could trigger a series of reactions that would further damage the economy. Further declines will mean fewer purchases at furniture and appliance stores. If construction stalls, 3 million homebuilding jobs are at risk. So are many brokers: Redfin plans to furlough 41% of its brokers. Zillow has suspended home buying in all 24 of it markets. Other brokerages have canceled open houses.

Listings of homes for sale were already near historic lows before the virus struck. Further squeezing supply, at least five states, including hard-hit New York, Michigan and Washington, have banned most construction of new properties as part of stay-at-home orders, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Delistings of homes for sale jumped 100% year-over-year for the week that ended on April 3, according to Redfin.

“People are losing their jobs,” said Taylor Marr, the company’s chief economist. “If they were looking for a home and they were working in a restaurant, that is probably no longer the case.”

In the U.S., the long-term outlook is shrouded in uncertainty. A staggering rise in unemployment and the stock market decline is diminishing buying power. In Massachusetts, purchases had surged more than 25% as recently as February compared with a year earlier, according to Kurt Thompson of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.

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Virus casts a dark cloud over once-thriving home market - Boston Herald
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