Pemo TheodoreHalf a year into a collapse of much of the business sector triggered by a global health crisis, home prices remain stubbornly resistant to the economic drag generated by Covid-19 in Silicon Valley and across the nation.
The National Association of Realtors is poised to issue a report later this week reiterating the findings of every weekly report it has issued since the beginning of the pandemic showing home prices on the rise – unaffected even by normal seasonal ups and downs – because so few homeowners are willing to put their houses on the market.
Last week’s report pegged home prices in Santa Clara County for the first week of October up 6.8% over what they were the same week of 2019 while for-sale listings were down by 23.2%. In the San Francisco metropolitan area, which covers the five counties of San Francisco, Alameda, Marin, Contra Costa and San Mateo, home prices were up 11.7% while inventory shrank 5.9%.
For the entire United States, home prices were up 12.9% year-over-year and the supply of houses for sale was 38% lower.
“People don’t want to move during the Covid, and they want some stability until after the elections,” said Campbell Realtor George Saghafian. “A third reason is they don’t know where to go. Unless they go out of the area, that’s going to be tough.”
Asked what economic factor would disrupt a housing market that seems to be defying economic laws of gravity, Saghafian had a one-word answer.
“Layoffs,” he said. Read more via BizJournals
