In the first couple of weeks of COVID 19 we had a total “stand still” and everyone kind of went into a “coma”, it was very similar to the Terrorist Attack of September 11. Transactions under contract continued to move forward but no new transactions. A few contracts still in the inspection period / due diligence period got cancelled but some others could not close early enough. After about 6 weeks into the crisis people started to live with the situation and gotten used to working in this kind of environment, and buyers started actively looking for opportunities and pursuing deals. Price wise in the residential market COVID 19 has not changed much and the prices are the same like before.
Of course there is still a lot of uncertainty. The sectors of Retail, Restaurants, Hotels and Offices have been affected the most during this pandemic crisis. The residential Real Estate market is standing strong in comparison to the commercial market. Multifamily properties are popular opportunities. Will the prices are going down? They have been down to begin with already since 2018 and we are not having a Real Estate Crises, we hare having a pandemic crisis that leads to an economic crisis and maybe the residential Real Estate market will be effected as well but not dramatically and time will tell.
Real Estate will hold their prices especially in uncertain times like this. Of course every market, every location and every type of Real Estate is different and it requires a certain expertise to understand the differences and be able to see the opportunities. We have to be careful right now in what and where to invest but opportunities are in every market and the savy investors are aware of it and rather have their money in Real Estate then in a bank account. We do not have a Chrystal ball to predict the future but looking at history and past economic down turns you can see that Real Estate is a popular investment especially in times we are currently in. I personally believe the market will bounce back in 2021.