National Housing Market Will Remain Hot Into the Winter Season
Though winter is usually a slow time for home sales, the 2021 post-pandemic winter season is expected to be far different, Realtor.com reports. With strong pent-up demand lingering from peak home buying season, economists are expecting more buyers to search for homes during the winter months.
Some buyers who faced supply-chain issues slowing new home construction in the spring, summer, and fall may also be extending their house hunting to the end of the year. Despite a greater influx of winter buyers, housing inventory is low and prices remain at an all-time high, so those looking for houses in the coming months can still expect a hot housing market even during a cold and typically stagnant season for home buying.
Winter is typically a slow time for home sales, when sellers might wonder if they have any hope of finding a buyer. But will that be the case this winter?
“Normally this is a boring question, but this year it’s anything but,” says Danielle Hale, chief economist of Realtor.com®. Although the housing market tends to freeze up once snow falls, Hale predicts that this post-pandemic winter season will be different: “Sellers can expect to see plenty of buyers.”
“Compared to other past winter seasons, this winter season’s sales activity will be stronger,” agrees Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors®. “This winter, there will be more sales compared to pre-pandemic winters going back all the way to 2006.”
This optimism stems back to (you guessed it) the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, which created a pent-up demand for homes throughout much of 2020 that completely swamped the usual spring rush, winter lull rhythm of the real estate cycle.