Conflicting Views About Residential Real Estate

Posted by Amy Vochatzer // July 22, 2020

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Covid-19 has filled this observer with conflicting views about residential real estate in Kansas City and the nation. The Ritz Herald shares this information, “eraldHerald Active listings—the count of all homes that were for sale at any time during the month—fell 20.7% year over year in June, similar to the record declines seen in April and May. This is the 10th-straight month of declines. Compared to a year ago, the biggest declines in active housing supply in May were in Allentown, PA (-53.3%), Tulsa (-53.0%), and Kansas City, MO (-51.6%). For Kansas City,” it is still a seller’s market, meaning that there is very little competition.

The number of homes for sale remains below last year’s level mainly because new listings are still down 11.6 and simply not keeping up with the rate that homes are going off the market as pending sales. Even though home prices are hitting new highs, there are just not enough homeowners willing to sell their homes to balance current homebuying demand.

Giving Up On Cities

But that may be changing. One-quarter of homebuyers say they’re planning to move from their current residence, with many saying the COVID-19 pandemic has convinced them to relocate to smaller towns and cities.

Redfin reported last week that its database of more than one million house hunters shows that a record 27% are looking to move to a different metro area from the one where they currently reside.

Forbearance Ending

There are millions of people who aren’t making payments on their mortgage and can’t pay because their job is gone temporarily or permanently gone. Forbearance is a temporary postponement of mortgage payments for up to 180 days. Forbearance ends soon unless the banks can extend them another 180 days. The number of citizens in that predicament is at 4.1 million, and this data was before we entered what now appears to be a second shutdown as cases of the Coronavirus spread across the country.

The CARES Act

The CARES Act threw property owners a bone back in March, allowing for up to 180-day forbearances on government- and GSE-backed mortgages. But it’s now been months, and for many, those initial grace periods are starting to expire.

If you’re in this boat, that means two things: First, mortgage payments will begin to resume. You’ll need to make your regularly scheduled payments — or risk going into default.

On top of this, you will also need to work with your servicer to repay your missed payments. You can choose to pay a lump sum, defer your missed payments to the end of the loan term, modify your loan, or set up a monthly repayment plan. (If you have a private loan not backed by a government agency, Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac, your options might be different here, so check with your servicer.)