COVID-19 is causing all of us to change how we live, work and play. I’m a New York, born and raised in lower Manhattan, but have been living in the suburbs in Pennsylvania for 15 years. I have a backyard and equally important a basketball hoop in my driveway. Thus, I can’t imagine what life is like in New York City. If I was still living I the projects, I would be thinking / concern about touching the building doors with my bare hands, being in an elevator with someone, crossing by someone on the sidewalk and not really wanting to go outside even though the weather is getting hotter.
It appears many city dwellers share my thoughts. According to a Harris Poll, nearly a third of Americans are considering moving to less densely populated areas due to COVID-19. In addition, Urbanites (43%) were twice as likely than suburban (26%) and rural (21%) dwellers to have recently browsed a real estate website for homes and apartments to rent or buy.
Homebuyers are coming out of coronavirus isolation and are swarming back into the housing market, lured by falling house prices and some of the lowest mortgage rates ever seen.
A trade group reports that applications for homebuyer mortgages have been rising for weeks and saw a particularly big jump last week.
And though the pandemic is still with us, a major brokerage says demand for homes is now higher than it was before the COVID-19 outbreak.
Overall mortgage applications rose 2.7% during the week ending May 22, led by a 9% jump in applications for loans to buy homes, as opposed to refinancing, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday.
Demand for so-called purchase loans has grown for six straight weeks and has surged 54% since early April, says Joel Kan, the trade group's associate vice president of forecasting.
Toll Brothers, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, builds, markets, sells, and arranges finance for detached and attached homes in luxury residential communities in the United States. Toll Brothers is known in the industry for building homes and communities for well off individuals.
Three months ago, when Toll Brothers announced their earnings, the stock fell 20.9% after reporting a lower first quarter profit as sales fell as people who signed contracts got cold feet or lost their job as COVID-19 kicked into gear. It was one of the companies worst one day drops in its history. But this past week was a different story.
Toll Brothers reported earnings earlier in the week and the stock price rose as the company reported that sales of new homes rose in April following a major hit the month before, despite the onslaught of COVID-19.
Douglas C. Yearley, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer stated the quarter was represented by low mortgage rates and limited supply of new and existing homes nationwide as the company net signed contracts were up 43% through the six weeks ended March 15, 2020, compared to the prior year’s same period. New income and revenue were down year over year, but the company had implemented various cost reduction initiatives, including workforce reductions.
This post is late as I had most of the content ready to go two days ago, but price did hit the daily supply that I marked and although the momentum is up, I'm looking for price to pull back to the daily demand.
This post is my personal opinion. I’m not a financial advisor, this isn't financial advice. Do your own research before making investment decisions.
