Redfin Brings Employees Back As Demand Surges Past Pre-Pandemic Levels

Though economic uncertainty and a pandemic are plaguing the country, low interest rates are proving too good of a deal to pass up for potential homebuyers who are financially stable enough to swing a home purchase, according to Redfin. As states reopened and people acclimated to the buying norms of the pandemic, demand started rapidly increasing at the end of April. Demand was up 16.5 percent higher than it was before the pandemic for the week ended May 17, allowing the real estate listing company to bring back over one-third of furloughed employees.

This past week, Redfin’s home-buying demand moved out of recovery mode and into growth mode, reaching a new peak. For the seven days ended May 17, demand was 16.5% higher than it was before the pandemic, on a seasonally-adjusted basis.

To handle the rapid rise in home-buying demand, Redfin has been bringing staff back from the furlough that was initiated in early April. Of the roughly 1,000 people who went on furlough, we’ve already welcomed approximately 350 Redfin employees back to work.

The strength of the recovery has been surprising. New cases of the coronavirus have certainly tapered from their peaks back in April, but over 20,000 new cases are still being reported daily in the U.S. and last week another 2.4 million workers filed for unemployment benefits. Home-buying demand seems to have been largely unaffected in the face of those headwinds.

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