Articles

By Holly Beyer, For The Daily News

posted Jul 3, 2020 at 12:01 AM

 

As COVID-19 spread through Eastern North Carolina, uncertainty spiked for local home buyers and sellers — a feeling that lingers.

Jacksonville senior planner Jeremy Smith was putting an offer on his first house, and likely forever home, when coronavirus became a widespread concern and the state began to shut down. Concern that his closing could be delayed hit immediately as Smith realized offices that handled records required in a sale would be shutting down.

But as real estate remained essential, the process moved forward and Smith closed on his Jacksonville home a few weeks early. While he said he was happy to be closing, it wasn’t the big, celebratory moment he’d pictured as he sat in the attorney’s parking lot, calling the office to bring the paperwork to his car to sign.

“You hear folks talk about the big grandiose closing ... we kind of missed out on that because we sat in the attorney’s parking lot,” Smith said. “It was just very cold, I guess is the best way to put it.”

The limited contact closings are just one way the process of buying a home has evolved to accommodate extra precautions during the pandemic. Traditional open houses have ceased, but realtors are still finding ways to host them online.

Virtual tours and 360 model technology that has existed for a while is now included on most MLS listings, said Christi Hill, realtor with Keller Williams in Jacksonville.

The transition hasn’t been as hard on Onslow County because most area realtors were already using at least some technology, said Kim Perkins of Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage and president of the Jacksonville Board of Realtors.

“The home buying process is more virtual than it’s ever been ... We are practicing social distancing with virtual tours, FaceTime and other video call platforms,” Perkins said.

Meanwhile the long-running inventory shortage across the nation, especially along the Carolina coast following Hurricane Florence, has grown as sellers worry about contracting the virus with extra traffic from potential buyers. Stay at home orders and the Department of Defense (DOD) travel ban present additional hurdles as moves are put on hold.

“The first week, when they shut (the state) down, we were slow. But people are still buying. Our market is still moving,” said Pam Baumgardner, realtor and owner of the Real Estate Center in New Bern.

Demand for homes is outpacing supply, several local real estate agents said. Listings from the start of the year through mid-May dropped 13% compared to the same time last year in Onslow County, according to MLS data analyzed by Ken Brandon of Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage.

Roughly 11% fewer homes were listed in Craven County and 6% fewer in Lenoir County.

“Sellers don’t want to sell in some circumstances because they can’t move really,” said Kinston Realtor Nathan Perry, owner of Nathan Perry Realty. “I’ve got people that want to buy their houses but I’ve pretty much taken a house off the market because they can’t move.”

Further southeast in Jacksonville, sellers who will move to other bases when the DOD ban lifts this summer are also nervous to list homes that could sell before they get orders to move, Hill said. The military travel ban is expected to lift at the end of June, but has already been extended once.

But buyers moving to the Jacksonville and New Bern areas are still trying to secure housing for their upcoming moves, Hill said.

“I don’t know that it’s going to impact us the way it’s impacted other areas because of the (permanent change of station) moves, the fact that people are going to come here,” Hill said. “Our PCS season literally shifted to the right a little bit. I think the impact is going to come in timing.”

Normal demand amid fewer listings has resulted in the number of homes sold in Onslow County increasing about 1% over the same period last year and staying steady in Craven County.

That’s great for sellers willing to list their homes because in some cases, turn-key houses are receiving multiple offers, with some selling above asking price, Baumgardner said.

Across the board, average sales prices have jumped during the first several months of 2020 compared to last year, driven mostly by the shortage of homes. The average sale price of houses jumped 6% in Onslow County, 19% in Lenoir and 14% in Craven, according to the MLS data.

Even though sellers are able to earn top dollar for their homes, it’s still a good time to buy, several realtors said.

Interest rates hit historic lows in March when COVID-19 hit. While they have been volatile over the last couple of months, they’ve stayed low, Hill said.

The Federal Reserve also recently made its second emergency rate cut to stimulate the economy and encourage borrowing post-COVID-19, further keeping interest rates low.

Those low interest rates mean buyers in Eastern North Carolina can get more house for their money, Baumgardner said.

In Kinston, which doesn’t have the stable flow of military movers to rely on, it’s been harder to sell homes during coronavirus, Perry said. Where listings dropped 6% so far this year compared to 2019, the number of sales has dropped 19%, according to the MLS data.

Part of the drop is because buyers in Kinston are more traditional, Perry said. They want to get inside a house and touch things and aren’t comfortable buying homes on virtual tours alone, he said.

“Buyers are nervous about spending money because there’s questions with their jobs. I’ve seen a handful of folks furloughed or who have lost their jobs due to the coronavirus, hence they can’t buy a house,” Perry said.

Investors buying commercial and residential properties have also backed out of deals, he said, mostly because they want to have cash on hand if the economic impact of COVID-19 is long term.

That economic impact is what realtors are waiting to see play out, Baumgardner said.

“We don’t know the economy, how it’s going to affect the people — if it’s going to go back into more foreclosures,” Baumgardner said. “That’s the scare, how many foreclosures there’s going to be or people going into bankruptcy.”