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Stocks are tanking as the virus spreads. Will housing follow" Few homes look their best in the dirty grays of late winter, which is, in part, why homebuying season coincides with the arrival of spring. This year, however, the crocuses that can make a house look that much nicer are showing up alongside the less reassuring news of a virus circling the globe.
The rapid spread of COVID-19?more commonly referred to as coronavirus or novel coronavirus?has officially been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. It?s already claimed more than 4,000 lives. Major events and conferences are being postponed or canceled, corporations are telling employees to work from home, and the stock market has dropped more than 15 percent since February 24. If you?re in the market for a house, all this uncertainty might have you worried about the housing market. Will it suffer a swoon similar to Wall Street" There are a few ways the virus could effect the housing market that you should be aware of?but before we get into the details, you can breath a sigh of relief, because a housing catastrophe on the scale of the 2008 financial crisis is almost certainly not going to happen.
There are more than 1,000 cases currently confirmed in the United States. The countries where the virus has hit the hardest?namely China, where more than 80,000 cases have been documented?are global manufacturing hubs that corporations use as suppliers. China?s economy ha...