Kevin+Jonathan In and On the Media
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE Q+A
The San Francisco Chronicle asks expert area realtors questions every week for their Sound-Off segment found in its Sunday Real Estate Section. The online counter part appears on SF Gate. We've been asked to contribute and do so fairly often, which is what you're seeing here.
Q: How do you expect the recent spike in COVID-19 cases to affect the Bay Area’s housing market?
A: Since COVID started, many aspects of the Bay Area’s housing market stayed the same: it still costs about $1,000 per square foot to buy a home in San Francisco. People are still buying and selling.
Lenders are still lending (at very low interest rates). But it’s also changed: There are fewer transactions overall. Prices have stayed strong for houses but dipped a bit for condos. And there are no open houses.
The latest spike in COVID-19 cases will impact the housing market like everything else: it’ll interrupt our slow crawl towards a semblance of normalcy. You won’t be able to stumble upon an open house while out one weekend for a long while.
But the spike stresses why it’s even more important to work with good agents especially now.
Private appointments that agents facilitate are the only way to see a property for sale in person. More important, because COVID has really highlighted what “home” means to people, who better to help guide people with expertise, perspective and context sorely needed now than your friendly agent?
The online version of this was published on July 5, 2020 while the print version was also published on Sunday, July 5, 2020. Find the online version here.
For More Sound-Off Snippets...
Conflicting news reports about the real estate ‘market’ are concerning because they gloss over the fact that the housing market is very nuanced as each property is unique. Folks can lose sight that buying a home not only serves the very basic purpose of shelter but is also the main way folks can build wealth.
“A lot of renters have become buyers,” observed real estate agent Kevin Ho. “All the talk of exodus — that’s the headline-grabbing news — but the real news is that a lot of buyers have a little more affordability. And a little more balance to the market allows them to own a piece of San Francisco.”
Ho said more of the buyers right now seem to be people who want to live in the home they’re purchasing, rather than using it as an investment. He said some of the recent changes to the law around tenant protections and rent forgiveness might be having an impact, and investors “don’t necessarily want to assume that risk.” In Mission Local.