BEHOLD THE COVID BUYING BOOM

HOW THE PANDEMIC HOUSING MARKET BECAME THE UNEXPECTED WINNER OF 2020

- CHRISTIANNA McCAUSLAND

NICK AND KATE COLVIN LOVED their home in Homeland Mews. In their three years of ownership, they replaced the roof, updated the floors, and remodeled the kitchen and baths. They enjoyed their neighbors. Their two preschool-age daughters played in the front yard with other local children. Still, things were getting a little tight in the house. With a new baby on the way, the couple started thinking of selling and looking for a larger home. Then the pandemic arrived shortly after the birth of their son.

“We had no backyard, just a small brick patio and no room for a swing set,” says Kate. “We were quarantined at home with three kids who will only get bigger and Nick working from home. Even though we were thinking about moving before the third baby, the longer we were in the pandemic, the more of a driver it became.”

The Colvin’s story isn’t unique. After a brief drop in home-sales activity during the worst of the pandemic lockdown last year (and that was in the spring, when there’s usually a brisk market), the residential real-estate market rebounded with such gusto that Realtors and inventory can barely keep up.

Stuck at home for weeks on end, some consumers realized that their home wasn’t working for them or they simply didn’t like it. Buyers also wanted to capitalize on all-time low rates to buy homes more suitable for social distancing. And free of commutes in the new remote-working world, they were not hemmed in by geography. Then, a new segment turned up the market heat: millennials. Once written off as a generation of renters, they realized they could buy a home and pay less per month than their rent.