with a year earlier, according to Kurt Thompson of
the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.
The biggest pullback is occurring among
casual buyers and sellers, whose caution is
exacerbating the predicament for people who
feel compelled to move. Consider Marc Okicich,
who’s been trying to move his wife and two
daughters to San Diego, where he’s lived since
November after a job transfer. The family put
their Chicago-area house on the market in
February. It finally fetched one offer last week.
The two sides reached agreement Sunday for
$8,000 below the asking price.
In New York City, where the virus has hit hardest,
property visits have all but stopped. Michael J.
Franco, an agent with Compass, said one of the
only transactions he’s made the past two weeks
occurred when the owners of an Manhattan
apartment who’d been trying to sell it decided
to rent it out instead.
Cara Ameer, an agent in northeast Florida,
has been driving around to make video tours
for several clients facing urgent moves. One
must move from New Mexico because of a job
change but has been forced the virus outbreak
to postpone a house hunting trip. Another
from Colorado made an offer on one of Ameer’s
homes, sight unseen, deciding the video was
good enough.
But for the majority of buyers, virtual tours
aren’t enough, even if they can help narrow
their options.
“People need to touch, people need to smell the
place, people need to see the neighborhood,”
said Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the
National Association of Realtors.