Hit by coronavirus shutdown, Michigan’s real estate industry hopes to bounce back - MLive.com

ANN ARBOR, MI — Patrick McCauley spent much of what would normally be peak home-buying season working on his heirloom apple orchard.

It’s been a great time to have a hobby, McCauley said, but he’d like to get back to selling houses.

The Ann Arbor real estate agent is among many across Michigan who’ve had extra downtime since March, with work disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak and shutdown orders.

Home sales have slumped.

Even in the Ann Arbor area, one of Michigan’s hottest housing markets, sales were down over 30% last month compared to April 2019, according to the Ann Arbor Area Board of Realtors.

Statewide numbers for April are still being finalized, but March showed a 7.6% drop, Michigan Realtors reported.

Unable to go out and show houses until two days ago, McCauley has spent recent weeks at home with his family, doing some work remotely and spending other days picking flowers from the lawn to make fermented dandelion and violet meads and ginger-dandelion wine, while watching his marauding band of chickens delight passersby.

“This is normally when we’re earning a good chunk of our salary or income for the year,” he said, acknowledging he hasn’t closed on any sales since the pandemic hit, and normally he’d be selling three to five houses a month this time of year.

Deemed non-essential under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s shutdown orders effective March 24, Michigan’s real estate industry was given the OK to restart Thursday, May 7.

Related: Michigan is in Phase 3 of 6 in coronavirus response and recovery, governor says

Agents are now moving quickly to catch up on a backlog of work, meeting with clients in person again.

As he spoke Friday, McCauley said he was showing several houses to three different clients.

Agents must follow new safety protocols for in-person showings and some are adapting to virtual showings.

Under the revised restrictions, property showings can be done by appointment only and are limited to no more than four people at a time on a property, with no in-person open houses, and no showing rental properties until tenants have vacated.

It’s also expected that people follow social-distancing guidelines and maintain a 6-foot separation.

Renee Dwyer, a Lansing-area real estate agent, said she held video meetings with clients via Zoom and FaceTime during the shutdown and she’s planning on holding Zoom open houses next, giving buyers live walk-throughs.

“A large part of providing service to sellers is making sure as many buyers as possible see their house, and during this time we are wanting to do that in ways that minimize how many people are coming into a home,” she said.

Dwyer said she’s invested in a Gimbal stabilizer for her camera and a microphone for improved audio, and learning how to link a Google form with a QR code — all things she never would have guessed six months ago she’d be doing in 2020.

“You have to be creative,” she said.

She’ll still do some in-person showings, she said.

As for how the shutdown impacted her sales, Dwyer said, it mostly just delayed things.

She said she was grateful she could go through with closings that were under contract and she’s optimistic she’s still on track to sell more homes than last year.

One of the first things she did after the restart on Thursday was meet with a photographer to get marketing photos of a property.

“That’s really important right now because we want buyers to be very carefully previewing properties before we’re scheduling showings,” she said.

The Michigan Realtors association called the governor’s order to ease restrictions great news, though it doesn’t mean business as usual.

Preventing a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic demands concerted effort by all residents and agents, the association says.

The association released guidelines for agents, such as encouraging masks and gloves, asking sellers to turn on all lights and leave interior doors, drapes and blinds open to limit the need to touch anything, and cleaning and disinfecting surfaces.

Michigan Realtors President Maureen Francis said a lot of sellers held back on listing their houses or took listings down the last couple months, while some buyers also held off, but a lot of new listings are now coming to the market.

“We’re hoping as more of the economy comes back online, we should come back steadily,” she said.

There was a shortage of housing and pent-up demand before the pandemic and that hasn’t changed, Francis said, predicting the industry will rebound without prices softening much.

While some say it’s a seller’s market, Francis said, “I would say we’re probably at a balanced market right now.”

A 1,070-square-foot home for sale in Ann Arbor on April 16, 2020. It listed for $390,000.Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News

Michigan Realtors reported 7,347 homes sold across the state in March, a drop of over 600 compared to March 2019. The coronavirus emergency in Michigan started March 10.

In different parts of the state, March numbers were both up and down:

• Ann Arbor area — prices up 5% to $847,286, sales up 6%
• Battle Creek area — prices up 21% to $157,578, sales up 11%
• Bay County — prices up 14% to $112,914, sales up 2.4%
• Detroit area — prices up 8% to $74,704, sales down 31%
• Genesee County — prices up 10% to $159,171, sales down 8%
• Grand Rapids area — not available
• Kalamazoo area — prices up 5% to $206,341, sales down nearly 1%
• Lansing area — prices up 11% to $191,067, sales down 10%
• Greater Wayne County — prices up 13% to $202,529, sales down 18%
• Grosse Pointe — prices up 28% to $379,458, sales down 15%
• Hillsdale County — prices up 16% to $142,718, sales down 7%
• Jackson area — prices up 2% to $149,957, sales up 2.3%
• Livingston County — prices up half a percent to $321,472, sales down 4.4%
• Oakland County — prices up 8% to $326,703, sales down 11%
• Macomb County — prices up 2.5% to $205,464, sales down 21%
• Midland area — prices up 7% to $180,317, sales up 13%
• Monroe-Down River area — prices up 1.35% to $176,266, sales down 2.1%
• Saginaw area — prices up 28% to $142,521, sales down 7%
• Traverse City area — prices up 12% to $288,903, sales down 2.25%
• West Michigan Lakeshore (Muskegon/Ottawa/Allegan counties) — prices down 0.3% to $220,104, sales up 0.23%

For April, the Detroit Association of Realtors reported home sales in the Detroit area were down 58%, compared to April 2019. Average price was $84,692, up 28%.

The association separately reported condo sales down 51%, with an average price of $278,700, down 11%.

Across Wayne County, home sales were down 50%, with an average price just over $190,000.

The Greater Lansing Association of Realtors reported a 24% drop in home sales in the Lansing area for April, while average price went up 3% to $165,000, compared with April 2019.

Washtenaw County’s housing market has seen both ups and downs lately. New listings were down about 12-13% in March, though 202 single-family homes and 69 condos still sold.

A significant amount of real estate work was able to be done online the last couple months, said Christine Paga, Ann Arbor Area Board of Realtors communications manager.

There were 220 new home listings in the county in April, Paga said, and 262 homes sold at an average price of $328,672 — down from 385 sales and $344,071 in April 2019.

The April figures could change slightly in the coming days as numbers are finalized, Paga said, but a drop of over 100 home sales in one month is substantial.

“Certainly, this has been a hard month … but I think there’s a good chance it will rebound,” she said.

Paga said she and her husband are hoping to become first-time homebuyers, and they’ve been perusing online listings during the pandemic while getting pre-approved for a loan.

She said she’s noticed listings lower than they might have been two months ago, but she hasn’t jumped on any yet.

“I’m not dying to walk through someone else’s house at the moment,” she said. “I’m hoping soon everything will be kind of back to normal.”

Homes in the Ann Arbor area have sat on the market 39 days on average, about the same as last year, Paga said.

Even before the shutdown, McCauley said, real estate was slowing down because of people getting nervous.

He stopped meeting with clients in person about four or five days before the shutdown, he said, and once it hit, “We couldn’t even go put signs in the ground.”

“I literally have listings going on the market with client photos,” he said.

McCauley said he worked with some clients remotely during the shutdown, but mostly tried lining up things for when it ended. For a couple sellers who had to move, he said, he arranged virtual showings via Zoom and had sellers do video walk-throughs with their phones and post them on YouTube.

That’s not ideal, he said, but he was able to line up one potential sale that’s under contract now.

McCauley’s wife, Andrea Kinney, also works in real estate, he said, but being able to file for unemployment helped them cushion the blow.

On Friday, McCauley wore a mask and carried hand sanitizer and wipes.

“I am basically the only person touching anything in the house,” he said, noting he opens the front door for potential buyers and from there they don’t need to touch anything.

“Obviously, there’s some risk to letting somebody into your house,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can to be safe.”

With lingering unemployment, layoffs, college campuses shut down and people still social distancing, McCauley is bracing for an off year.

“I’m just trying to help the people I can,” he said.

MORE FROM THE ANN ARBOR NEWS AND MLIVE:

Fear, uncertainty surround downtown Ann Arbor’s potentially years-long recovery from pandemic

Friday’s coronavirus cases highest of the week, but Michigan falls to 4th-most in U.S. for deaths

Let's block ads! (Why?)

"back" - Google News
May 09, 2020 at 07:22PM
https://ift.tt/3duCZiN

Hit by coronavirus shutdown, Michigan’s real estate industry hopes to bounce back - MLive.com
"back" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2QNOfxc
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update

Bagikan Berita Ini