INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) — Real estate experts say spring and summer are popular times to buy or sell your home, but with the stock market crash and shedding of 401(k)s due to the coronavirus pandemic, you may be concerned about the housing market.
Obviously, there have been changes to buying and selling, such as common practices like open houses and showings, which have shifted to virtual visits for the safety of both buyers and sellers.
Mark Nottingham, owner of realty firm Plat Collective, compared the current housing market to the "subprime mortgage crisis" that hit in the late 2000s.
"Some of it feels the same, but when you take it a layer deep, it's actually very different because in 2008, we had a recession that was led by a housing crisis," Nottingham said. "Here, we have a much different set of circumstances, and I think it will have an impact on housing, but it's not being led by housing."
Nottingham points to three key differences between them:
- Availability of mortgage credit
- Home prices
- Inventory
Nottingham said he anticipates a continued healthy pace for Indy real estate despite the coronavirus pandemic. He said at the end of March 2019, the average time it took to sell a house in Indianapolis was 52 days. Right now, he said the average is 39 days. Nottingham attributes four indicators to this positive statistic: days on market, transaction count, median sale price and sale price as a percentage of list price.
Obviously, as this pandemic has been a bit unpredictable at times, Nottingham said the trend could change.
Nottingham also credits affordability in Indy. Of the 30 largest marketplaces in the country, he said Indianapolis is the second most affordable. Data from Smart-Asset also shows, at times, buying is more affordable than renting in Indy in their price-to-rent ratio.
New data from popular realty site Zillow points to perhaps another positive sign: Nationally, page views for listings back in mid-March had fallen as much as 19 percent year-to-year but have rebounded since — some to levels even higher than this same time last year.