MarketNsight reports June new pending sales continue to exceed 2019 sales, even as COVID-19 (coronavirus) Georgia cases continue to increase. According to MarketNsight and ViaSearch President John Hunt, week three of June 2020 was up 31% year-to-year with a lag and will be up 43% year to year when the lag is accounted for.
The first three weeks of June 2020 are trending up 29% over June 2019, which was 18% higher than June the year before that. The year-to-year increases for June 2020 appear to be accelerating, going from 23% in week one to 35% in week two and 43% in the third week.
MarketNSight is trending pending new home sales with Georgia coronavirus cases.
“When we first ran the numbers, it was quite shocking to see the steep increase in the number of Georgia coronavirus cases,” Hunt said. “This is happening across the country as we have started to open the economy back up.
“The trends appear to show that the shelter-in-place orders had a much bigger impact on housing demand than the actual total number of new weekly cases.”
Housing continues to track strong numbers for the year. January through week three of June 2020, new pending sales are up 10% over the same period the year before. Sales in metro Atlanta were down year-to-year for seven weeks but have now been positive year-to-year for 16 weeks.
Resales are beginning to show improvement in pending sales as well turning positive year-to-year in week three of May and remaining positive since. However, new construction continues to outpace resale in terms of year-to-year growth.
With the sharp rise in coronavirus cases in Georgia and the nation, MarketNSight will continue to share weekly updates. Obviously, if Georgia mandates another shelter-in-place, it will absolutely have a negative effect on housing.
Will the sharp rise in coronavirus cases have a dampening effect on demand? According to Hunt, it has not so far, but it bears watching and demands that the firm continue to monitor the numbers weekly.
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