SEATTLE, March 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- (NASDAQ: RDFN)
— As the world approaches the one-year anniversary of the World
Health Organization declaring Covid-19 a pandemic, a new
report from Redfin (www.redfin.com), the technology-powered
real estate brokerage, looks back on its impact on the U.S. housing
market. The coronavirus has upended just about every aspect of
daily life, including where Americans live, what they look for in a
home and how they go about the homebuying process. Redfin created
12 charts that illustrate the pandemic's profound impact on the
U.S. housing market, available in the full report and
summarized below.
$3.1 trillion: The amount of
home value Americans have gained
Despite the economy's plunge into recession, U.S. homeowners
have reaped $3.1 trillion in home
value during the pandemic as a result of rising housing prices. The
total worth of U.S. homes was $32.4
trillion in January, up 10% from $29.3 trillion a year earlier.
2013: The last time U.S. home prices surged this much
The median home sale price in the U.S. was $330,500 in January, up 14.3% from a year
earlier. That's the biggest annual gain during a given month since
at least 2013.
"Surging prices are helping local homeowners build equity, but
also creating barriers to entry for many first-time buyers here in
Albuquerque," said Redfin New Mexico real estate agent Austin Wolff. "With so many affluent folks
moving in from out of state, families who've been here for
generations could get priced out. But beginner buyers shouldn't
give up. I've had clients win homes by using creative strategies
that don't require a huge down payment or the highest bid."
24%: The record decline in inventory that's driving a massive
housing shortage
There are significantly more buyers than there are sellers—an
imbalance that has existed for years but has significantly
intensified during the pandemic. The supply of homes for sale
plummeted a record 23.6% year over year in January as scores of
Americans relocated and purchased homes thanks to low mortgage
rates and remote work. The inventory shortage has acted as a
catalyst for many of the other housing-market shifts the country
has seen over the past year, including skyrocketing prices and
fierce bidding wars.
"Inventory is so low that it has even been tough to get in to
see homes at all," said Redfin Cleveland real estate agent
Danielle Parent. "It's a very, very
challenging market for buyers, so I'm telling my clients that they
should always have second- and third-choice homes in mind and may
want to consider making offers sight-unseen."
58%: The share of home offers facing bidding wars as
competition intensifies
The U.S. is currently in one of the most competitive housing
markets in history. Nationwide, 58.3% of home offers written by
Redfin agents faced bidding wars in January, up from 53.3% in
December. That marks the ninth-straight month in which more than
half of offers encountered competition.
Another sign of intense competition is homes selling quickly and
fetching more than the sellers originally ask for. The typical home
that sold in January went under contract in 34 days—22 days fewer
than a year earlier—and a third (32.9%) of homes sold for above
their listing prices, compared with 18.9% a year earlier.
45%: The jump in luxury-home sales that outpaced the increase
in affordable-home sales by a factor of five
Sales of luxury homes surged 45% year over year during the three
months ending Jan. 31—more than any other price tier—as affluent
Americans bought vacation homes and worked remotely. By comparison,
home sales in the affordable price tier grew just 9%.
84%: The growth in demand for second homes
Similarly, demand for second homes jumped 84% year over year in
January, outpacing the 36% increase in demand for primary homes.
That's according to a Redfin analysis of mortgage-rate lock data
from real estate analytics firm Optimal Blue.
2.7 million: The number of U.S. homeowners in
forbearance
About 5% of U.S. homeowners, or 2.7 million Americans, were in
forbearance as of Feb. 16, down from
a peak of 4.8 million (9%) in May, according to data provider Black
Knight. The U.S. government enacted the CARES Act in March,
allowing Americans to enroll in forbearance programs if they're
struggling to pay the bills during the economic crisis brought on
by the coronavirus pandemic.
30%: The percentage of Redfin.com users looking to
relocate
Nationwide, 30.3% of Redfin.com users looked to move to a
different metro area in the fourth quarter of 2020, up from 29.2%
in the third quarter and 26.2% a year earlier. This figure ticked
even higher—to a record 30.7%—in January, the most recent month for
which data was available. Relatively affordable and warm locales
including Austin, TX, Phoenix, Las
Vegas, Dallas, Atlanta, Sacramento,
CA and Miami have seen
among the largest net inflows, meaning more people are looking to
move in than leave. These places have attracted people from dense,
costly cities including San
Francisco, Los Angeles and
New York City.
One-third: The share of Redfin.com saved searches that filter
exclusively for single-family homes
Single-family homes are back in vogue as Americans spend lots of
time inside during the pandemic. A third (32.9%) of saved
searches created by Redfin.com users filtered solely for
single-family homes in January, following a peak of 37.2% in July.
Meanwhile, the share of searches specifically for other types of
homes, such as condos, townhouses and multifamily listings, is much
lower; just 7.5% of saved Redfin searches excluded
single-family homes in January.
79%: The rise in pageviews of homes in rural areas
Redfin.com pageviews of homes in both small towns and rural
areas jumped nearly 80% year over year in January (after climbing
more than 200% in August), outpacing the 51% increase in pageviews
of homes in large metropolitan areas. While that gap has narrowed
since the summer, large metro areas continue to experience smaller
annual increases in pageview growth than rural areas and small
towns—a dynamic that existed before the pandemic, but on a much
smaller scale.
63%: The record-high portion of homebuyers making offers
sight-unseen
Almost two-thirds (63%) of people who bought a home in 2020 made
an offer on a property that they hadn't seen in person, up from 32%
in 2019 and the highest share since at least 2015, according to a
Redfin-commissioned survey in November and December of more than
1,900 homebuyers across 32 major markets. Some homebuyers may make
offers sight-unseen because they feel it's a safer option during
the coronavirus pandemic, while others go this route because it
allows them to submit quicker and oftentimes more competitive
bids.
Purchasing a home sight-unseen has become more feasible during
the pandemic thanks to high-quality 3D walkthroughs and virtual
tours. Views of 3D walkthroughs on Redfin.com have soared 581%
since the beginning of the pandemic. On average, 12% of home-tour
requests made by Redfin customers so far in 2021 have been requests
for agent-led video-chat tours, up from less than 1% in February
2020—before the coronavirus was declared a pandemic.
1 in 4: The share of listings that mention home
offices
With Americans spending so much time at home, features including
home offices and nice views have grown in popularity. A quarter
(24.9%) of listings mentioned home offices in January, up from
22.9% a year earlier (+8.7% year over year), according to a Redfin
analysis of multiple listing service (MLS) data. Other January
highlights include:
- 16.7% of homes listings mentioned views (+8.4% year over
year)
- 17.2% of home listings mentioned spas (+6.8% year over
year)
- 13.0% of home listings mentioned pools (+2.4% year over
year)
- 5.7% of home listings mentioned lakes (+9.6% year over
year)
To read the full report complete with charts, please visit:
https://www.redfin.com/news/coronavirus-pandemic-real-estate-impact-charts
About Redfin
Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a technology-powered residential real
estate company, redefining real estate in the consumer's favor in a
commission-driven industry. We do this by integrating every step of
the home buying and selling process and pairing our own agents with
our own technology, creating a service that is faster, better and
costs less. We offer brokerage, iBuying, mortgage, and title
services, and we also run the country's #1 nationwide brokerage
website, offering a host of online tools to consumers, including
the Redfin Estimate. We represent people buying and selling homes
in over 95 markets in the United
States and Canada. Since
our launch in 2006, we have saved our customers nearly $1 billion and we've helped them buy or sell more
than 310,000 homes worth more than $152
billion.
For more information or to contact a local Redfin real estate
agent, visit www.redfin.com. To learn about housing market trends
and download data, visit the Redfin Data Center. To be added to
Redfin's press release distribution list, email press@redfin.com.
To view Redfin's press center, click here.
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SOURCE Redfin