Salt Lake Real Estate Market Amid Covid-19 Pandemic
/Hey everybody. This is Albie. Say "hi" Al. I am totally low key today. I am not dressed up like a "real estate agent." I am just popping in really quick to to a quick video. I'm in the middle of teaching my son math and I am just taking a quick break. I haven't been here for a minute and I wanted to pop in.
You've probably seen real estate agents and lenders popping in all the time saying "Hey it's great - real estate is moving. It's a great time to buy. Interest rates are low - it's a great time to buy. It's a great time to sell your house. People are looking. " And I haven't jumped on that bandwagon because, to be honest, this whole virus and social isolation thing has thrown me for a loop. It is hard. It's weird. Everything is unknown right now. How long is it going to last? What will it be like when it's over? It's a lot right now. And so I kind of just wanted to pop in and say I'm here. I am watching to kind of see what's happening. And there is some movement in the market. I'm seeing - houses are getting listed. Houses are going under contract. Some houses are closing. Some houses are falling out of contract. It's kind of all over the place. Yesterday, looking at numbers, we were like 15% under last year. Today looking at numbers we were 1 - 8% under last year. It's like all over the place. Interest rates are up and down. Mortgages is are getting harder to get because people are getting furloughed. They don't know when they are going back to work and when that first payment's due if they are going to be able to make the payment. So lenders are getting a little bit stricter on who they lend to.
It's just - it's a weird time. And it'll be over hopefully soon. And things will change. (And my dog is doing something with his bowl and it's loud. Sorry about that.) But because there are so many unknowns - if you need to move and you've got to sell a house or you've got to buy a house - you can. There are buyers out there, there are sellers out there. There is stuff on the market that's happening.
But if you're just not ready and you just - you need to wait and you need to take a breath and you just need to stay where you are - stay where you are it's totally fine. I know as a sales person - as a real estate agent - I'm not supposed to say that. That's not what "sales people" say. But that's not who I am. I'm at the point too where it's like you know I can't in good conscience say "let's move, let's move, let's move!" because we don't know what the next month is going to look like - three months, six months. We don't. Everything is so new and unknown right now. So if you have to wait, don't feel bad about waiting. Do what you have to do. Do what's best for your family. We'll get through this. Things will be different when we get to the other side of it. And once it is, we'll reassess and we'll start making decisions again from where we're at.
But in the meantime, stay safe and stay healthy. We'll get through this together. And if you have questions about anything real estate related, let me know. I'm here. I'm home doing videos and teaching my kid. Trying to insert fun into our days, like we all are, to combat monotony. But, you know, we're doing what we can. Again - we'll get through it. Have a good rest of your week and I'll see you later.