SEATTLE, Feb. 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The COVID-19
vaccine is likely to add more buyers and sellers to an already red
hot real estate market.
A new survey1 from Zillow finds a large
majority (70%) of homeowners say they would be comfortable moving
to a new home after widespread COVID-19 vaccine distribution, a
meaningful bump from the 52% who currently feel that way. That
amounts to homeowners in more than 14 million homes feeling newly
comfortable moving after widespread
vaccination.2
Among homeowners who said the vaccine would impact their
decision to sell, nearly four-in-five (78%) said they expect it
will make them more likely to move.
This research follows Zillow's prediction of 7 million home
sales this year, nearly 25% more than in 2020, as more sellers
regain the confidence to return to the market at a time of
incredible demand. Last fall, Zillow research found financial
anxiety and ongoing uncertainty was keeping some would-be sellers
on the sidelines, depressing inventory. Now survey results find
measures of both life and financial uncertainty have decreased: 25%
of homeowners reported their life or financial situation was too
uncertain this January, compared to 29% who said the same in
November.
Sellers drawn in by more certainty, the vaccine and strong sale
prices could help feed a ravenous demand for homes this spring home
shopping season. 2020 brought a dramatic acceleration in the speed
of the market, with buyers snapping up homes just days after they
were listed for sale. That velocity, enabled by the rapid adoption
of real estate technology, allowed existing home sales to rise 5.6%
while overall inventory fell.
"We expect that the vaccine rollout will likely boost inventory,
as sellers become increasingly willing to move despite Covid-19 --
resulting in greater numbers of new listings beginning this
spring," says Chris Glynn, principal
economist at Zillow. "That injection of inventory could give buyers
more options and breathing room in a competitive market. The
vaccine, however, will also likely add to already-strong demand,
given that most sellers will become buyers as they trade in for a
home that better suits their new needs. "
That already-strong demand is being driven by both demographic
and pandemic-led factors. Millennials -- often considered the
largest generational group in the country -- are aging into their
peak home-buying years. The generation fueling the Zillow surfing
trend is now hitting their mid-30s, the median age of a first-time
home buyer.
The Great Reshuffling continues to contribute to unrelenting
demand in the for-sale market, as the pandemic has prompted people
to rethink how and where they want to live. The freedom to telework
has opened up new, affordable housing options all over the country.
Real estate tech tools, such as next-generation 3D home virtual
tours with interactive floor plans, are enabling shoppers to
remotely explore all the possibilities a move could
bring.
About Zillow Group:
Zillow Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: Z and ZG) is reimagining real estate
to make it easier to unlock life's next chapter.
As the most-visited real estate website in the U.S., Zillow® and
its affiliates offer customers an on-demand experience for selling,
buying, renting or financing with transparency and nearly seamless
end-to-end service. Zillow Offers® buys and sells homes directly in
dozens of markets across the country, allowing sellers control over
their timeline. Zillow Home Loans™, our affiliate lender, provides
our customers with an easy option to get pre-approved and secure
financing for their next home purchase. Zillow recently launched
Zillow Homes, Inc., a licensed brokerage entity, to streamline
Zillow Offers transactions.
Zillow Group's affiliates and subsidiaries include Zillow®,
Zillow Offers®, Zillow Premier Agent®, Zillow Home Loans™, Zillow
Closing Services™, Zillow Homes, Inc., Trulia®, Out East®,
StreetEasy® and HotPads®. Zillow Home Loans, LLC is an Equal
Housing Lender, NMLS #10287 (www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org).
1 Zillow Group Population Science
collected a nationally representative sample of more than 1,000
homeowners (household decision makers that own their home and did
not move in the past year). From January
26th to January
29th, 2021, the survey asked homeowners questions
about how the pandemic and widespread distribution of the COVID-19
vaccine would impact their plans to move.
2 Applied to the American Community
Survey's count of all owner-occupied housing units, 14M represents the gap between those that
currently feel comfortable moving and those that expect to after
widespread distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine.
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SOURCE Zillow