Home sales slipped and the number of homes listed for sale plunged during March because of the coronavirus, according to a new report from Redfin.
The report also found that the U.S. median home sale price in March increased 7.1 percent year-over-year and 3.3 percent month-over-month to $303,200.
“The impacts of the coronavirus hit the economy hard in mid-March, as we have been reporting in our weekly data, but it’s good to step back and take an aggregated look at the market,” Redfin Lead Economist Taylor Marr said in a release. “Real estate activities nearly ground to a halt in some parts of the country by the end of March, disrupted by shelter-in-place laws.
“Right now, sellers need to decide if they’ll list their home for sale among all the economic uncertainty. On one hand, the number of homes for sale is down more than 20 percent in recent weeks, even more than the 13 percent drop we saw for the full month of March, and home prices have so far held better than anyone expected,” Taylor said. “On the other hand, jobless claims continue to pile up and it is getting increasingly difficult to get a mortgage, which could limit buyer demand. How the market shapes up through the rest of spring will depend heavily on unemployment and the availability of credit.”
According to the report, new list prices slowed from 8 percent in mid-March to flat year-over-year as of mid-April. March home sales, which were only partially impacted by the coronavirus shutdowns, dropped 9.1 percent nationwide from February on a seasonally-adjusted basis, the largest decline since at least January 2012. Home sales also fell 1.2 percent year-over-year in March, the first decline in nine months.