Will COVID lead to housing price dropping ? (Ann Arbor, Saline: apartment, for rent)

[FrozenI69]

I’ve been hearing that housing prices may plunge due to the COVID crisis. Will it actually happen ?
I’m not in Ann Arbor, I’m in Northville about 20 minutes East, near I 275. Wondering when it will be a good time to purchase a town home. I was planning on doing so this summer, but COVID uncertainty made me push off big purchases till a later date.
I’ve been living in an apartment for 5 years so I’m familiar with the locality, but I’m not too experienced with the housing market.

[craig11152]

I am no expert in the field but I d not think prices will plunge at least not in historically desirable markets. There may be a dip short term but eventually this COVID-19 thing will either die down to manageable flu like events or anarchy will be in the future. Just my personal opinion.

[keraT]

I am waiting too. Especially after seeing the bottom price after 2009, i am too spoil to pay current market price. I have been waiting on sideline and watching the price go up. I know things will never be 2009 but housing price has been going up very fast. Any drop will be welcomed by all buyers. I did read there might be a drop 6-12 months from now. Housing has always been lagging indicator. It might just be 5% drop

[FrozenI69]

Originally Posted by keraT

I am waiting too. Especially after seeing the bottom price after 2009, i am too spoil to pay current market price. I have been waiting on sideline and watching the price go up. I know things will never be 2009 but housing price has been going up very fast. Any drop will be welcomed by all buyers. I did read there might be a drop 6-12 months from now. Housing has always been lagging indicator. It might just be 5% drop

Yeah, I don’t want to be the guy who gets a new home just before a housing price slump and then be left thinking “when is the value going to rise enough to pay off ? ”.
Some guys who bought property in 09 are making a killing off the appreciation in value since then. I’m not expecting that level of slump and rebound, but why miss out even on a flatter curve.

[Coldjensens]

Probably not. COVID has not change the supply or demand for housing. It is still a sellers market. The predictions I have seen are that it will continue to rise in very small increments.

If there is a total economic crash that lasts longer than the election, then it is possible prices will come down, but in that case, you will not have a job, so you will not be buying a house anyway.

[craig11152]

Another thought......interest rates likely aren't going down any (much) further but if they do one can always remortgage if the numbers make sense.

[dave w]

New houses by me in the 4-5 hundred thousand dollar range are still being built and selling like hot cakes. I think with low interest rates, and pent up demand from the covid thing has everyone just buying everything. I listed my cottage up north on Zillow and you can track the views and saves. This was in April May time frame. The response was crazy at the amount of lookers. I guess as long as they are working they are buying.

[lbj42]

Listed our home in Saline a few weeks ago and after some initial showings, things have fallen off quite a bit. Pulte has a lot of construction going on in the area and I think competing with new build is a big part of it (we are in the upper 300's). We had one realtor who did a showing tell us their client was still trying to decide between existing and new build. Another realtor told us the lower priced housing started selling quickly when things opened back up, but mid-price and higher is not moving as fast. I'm optimistic for now (really did not expect the stock market to recover as quickly as it did) and just hoping we can sell soon in case things start to go bad (moving to a condo currently under construction).

[FrozenI69]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

If there is a total economic crash that lasts longer than the election, then it is possible prices will come down, but in that case, you will not have a job, so you will not be buying a house anyway.

Here’s hoping Ford and GM make it through this in 1 piece. I am a software person and remote worker for now so the impact is not as significant for now, but we still need Ford and GM to continue making reasonable money to keep the contracts alive.

[GGG2020]

I think there will be local effects, and not always downward. My area was pretty "hot" before coronavirus, but I think we'll be looking at price drops soon. One, there are a lot of people looking to sell, leave, and never come back. I don't know if they'll find anyone willing to take their old digs so prices may start dropping. Two, we have a lot of new construction, and more in the works (maybe they'll put that off...) so the market was already getting overcrowded even when people wanted to live here. On the flip side, the smaller towns within a 2-3 hour radius? That's where most of the escapees are going. They're probably going to see pretty healthy price increases. My favorite part of the state used to have dirt cheap houses because there are pretty much no jobs there, but now that all these people are working remotely, location doesn't matter any more. So I've heard that area is overrun with house buyers.

Who knows, though. They say there's a sucker born every minute. A friend of mine decided to move out of Manhattan, and posted that his apartment is up for rent on Facebook. He had five "bites" within the hour. I wouldn't live in Manhattan if someone paid me, but there you go, someone still wanted it...