How Real Estate Investors View The Current Real Estate Market

In January 2020, it wouldn’t have necessarily even been a question of how real estate investors viewed the current real estate market. We’ve been in a real estate growth period for roughly the last decade, and it wasn’t exactly questioned by prospective clients and investors until about February 2020 brought us a global pandemic in the form of the novel coronavirus.

The implementation of lockdown and social distancing guidelines across the majority of the world stifled and even shut down many businesses, whereas a select few were able to adopt and thrive. For those that weren’t so lucky, though, this meant loss of employment and, ultimately, loss of income. Whether it be furloughed workers or the permanent closing of small businesses and chain locations, the impact COVID-19 had on the economy in the spring was drastic, and real estate investors were understandably concerned. 

Selling A Home

Selling your home hasn’t been a problem over the course of 2020, with investors and buyers such as Element Homebuyers being able and eager to jump into a thriving market that may now be experiencing more discounts than ever. Interest rates on mortgages are at an all-time low, coming in as low as about 2.75% for your typical 30-year loan, and making for a very incentivized market for investors. 

Sellers may not be able to get what they’d consider to be a high price or above-market offer for their property in a real estate economy with such low rates on the market, but selling a home, if you really need to sell it, shouldn’t be a problem for homeowners provided they connect with the right buyers and buyer’s markets, such as veryfasthomebuyers.com.

This is all assuming what you’re referring to is a typical residential home you’re placing on the market. Commercial real estate, or even rental property’s that happen to be residential as well, are a bit of a different story at the moment. 

Buying And Investing Right Now 

Buying and investing in real estate right now is a two-part game. Not to suggest that it hasn’t always been, or that these two classes of real estate aren’t two different animals entirely, but at this moment in time, that difference has only been widened and accentuated by the pandemic. 

Commercial real estate and residential homes, especially those for personal use, are two very polar investments for the time being. Commercial real estate, and anything owned by landlords looking to rent in general, have been impacted by the pandemic that saw the national unemployment rate spike to all-time highs just a few short months ago. 

With renters finding it hard to make a living while the economy was essentially on half pause for a brief period of time, many states enacted legislation sheltering renters from landlords coming down on them with a heavy hand for not being able to pay rent, and even outlawing evictions temporarily.

Commercial real estate is generally known to be lower-cost housing for the majority of properties, and these prospective tenants have been hit the hardest by the situation, making it harder and harder for landlords to fill vacancies in their properties. The economic hardship combined with federal and bureaucratic involvement in the process has complicated things significantly. If you’d like a good example on this, California has been one of the worst states for landlords and investors because of these changes.

Drawing A Simple Conclusion 

All of this is complex and situational, especially considering the fact that real estate, at least at the moment, cannot be grouped into one phrase and be said to be “booming” or “growing” for now, simply because of the diversity of it and the polarity of conditions that brings in regards to each. There will be some states and areas where commercial investing is doing well because the economy is back up and running, or perhaps the owner just had stable tenants. It is entirely a fluid, circumstantial situation, and the takeaway should simply be to keep a light sense of trepidation if you plan to invest anytime soon. 

As for you prospective homeowners looking for the place you wish to spend the next 30 years, or even just a great deal on a second home, now is still a great time to buy. Interest rates are in your favor and predicted to remain that way through probably the second quarter of 2021 at least. So, if you’re considering buying, do yourself a favor and at least begin looking. There are no shortage of homes on the market, and no shortage of loans priced below the rate of inflation to come and pay for it either.