Many industries have been devastated by the economic shutdown caused by the COVID-19 virus. Real estate is not one of them.
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Buyer demand in Union & Essex County is still strong heading into the fall. ShowingTime, which tracks the average number of buyer showings on residential properties, just announced that buyer showings are up 61.9% compared to the same time last year. They went on to say: “Normally, real estate activity begins to slow down in the late summer, but this year it peaked in July, August, and into September.”
There Is One Big Challenge
Purchaser demand is so high, the Northern New Jersey real estate market is running out of available homes for sale. Just last week, realtor.com reported: “Since the beginning of the COVID pandemic in March, nearly 400,000 fewer homes have been listed compared to last year, leaving a gaping hole in the U.S. housing inventory.”
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) revealed that, while home sales are skyrocketing, the inventory of existing homes for sale is dropping dramatically. Below is a graph of existing inventory (September numbers are not yet available):
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