Market activity begins to tick up after severe shelter-in-place plunge.
Median home sales prices are up. Interest rates hit new low.
May 2020 Crisis Update
-------
Shelter-in-place caused steep drops in activity across the board in what is typically the busiest selling season of the year. However, though still far below normal levels, activity has been slowly picking up since bottoming out in late March/early April, and will presumably continue to do so with the easing of both shelter-in-place and property-showing rules.
So far, median home prices are up year-over-year, but a fair proportion of the sales behind April median sales prices still reflects offers accepted prior to shelter in place.
Interest rates hit a new historic low in the last week of April.
The only way to clearly perceive the recent changes in the market - sudden plunge and the beginning of recovery - is by looking at WEEKLY trends in buyer and seller activity. These are illustrated in this first chart below.
The next series of charts reflects the dramatic changes in seller and buyer dynamics by MONTH as compared to spring 2019.
---
We are not going to review the economic news already extensively covered in the media, except for this stark illustration of the unparalleled rise in unemployment. How quickly this horrifying trend can be reversed will probably be the single largest factor behind an economic recovery (after the discovery of a vaccine).