Current Trends in the Housing Market
Social apps like Zillow now dominate the real estate market. It is easy for people to use. It has stormed the real estate market. This app. reaches an alarming amount of users and influences people to want to buy, says Shalom Lamm. Realtors can connect with a person who has seen a home on Zillow and already has an interest.
Zillow
The program is unique and first of its kind. It has taken over the market with its unique social design. It matches buyer with seller and makes arrangements for visits so that it facilitates sales. People who buy aren’t necessarily wanting or intending to purchase. They are simply enjoying looking at homes and comparing what they have against what is available, or they are dreaming. It is when they are unprepared, that they find something. That makes the realtor’s job much easier.
Shalom Lamm is a very successful real estate agent who has won his success by keeping up with market trends and believes that advertising as well as marketing, though expensive, is most important in the real estate business. He believes Zillow is almost a monopoly and that social media will more and more take over the real estate business.
Affect of Covid-19
Surprisingly, when many lost their jobs due to Covid during a major recession, the housing market did not completely lose. Many people chose to move from the big city to more rural areas according to Shalom Lamm, to reduce risk of exposure. More sales means more development which in the long run, will help the economy.
Covid-19 caused homeowners to reduce their price by thousands of dollars for months. Then, ‘according to statistics’ home prices began to rise. Prices were predicted to rise for 2021 until about this month, when the prices are expected to fall. It is the rural area in the South that will hold the prices up. That is where investors are buying up land to develop as people move to the rural areas.
Moving from Larger Cities
The southern areas have people moving there because these smaller cities have lower living costs, good transportation systems with all amenities. They have good employment advantages. They are named 18 hr. cities. The larger cities, Washington DC, Boston Mass, Chicago Ill. These are called 24 hr. cities. People are moving from the 24 hr. cities to the 18 hr. ones now that they don’t need to go to the office each day.
People have changed some values due to Covid. They are now protecting their health, wanting political justice, and equality. With online social media taking over our interest and moving people from being close to one another, Covid has brought people closer. Smaller cities provide a chance for closer human relationships.
Because of the expected moves to the South and to other areas outside the larger cities, the prices in these markets will be higher and hold the median costs. Lamm believes all this is guess work.