Homebuying in Illinois is picking up. | Adobe Stock
Homebuying in Illinois is picking up. | Adobe Stock
In March, COVID-19 asserted itself in the United States, sending economies and industries reeling as jobs began to disappear and states shut down.
For all the negative impacts the coronavirus had, the housing market numbers indicate there might not have been a better time to buy a home.
Even better news for homebuyers is the trend could extend into the current year, Central Illinois Proud reported.
B.J. Armstrong
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Bloomington-Normal were cities that mirrored a nationwide trend in the housing market. Realtor B.J. Armstrong said the home-sale value of equity increased approximately 20% every month since March when other industries fought to stay afloat.
For Armstrong, the past year could be a case study in the market as 2020 became the first year he could remember over a long career that there were more homebuyers than sellers.
As a realtor for Keller Williams Revolution in Bloomington and a board member of the Mid-Illinois Realtors Association, Armstrong said the interest rates on a 30-year note are historically low. This has spurred a buyer’s market along with people looking to renegotiate their mortgage.
“With the interest rates where they’re at, we’re seeing millennials step up and move out of rental properties and now into homeownership, which drives demand in a new way,” Armstrong said, Central Illinois reported.
Diane Tinsley, a Springfield-based Coldwell Banker broker, said lack of inventory is something she has not seen before, The Telegraph reported.
Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.
Tinsley said her office has considered going door-to-door to find possible sellers.
“We are at an all-time low on inventory, way worse than last year,” she said. “Hopefully, that is going to change in the spring because we still have buyers out there. We are all buyer happy and seller low.”
The housing demand is having a trickle-down effect Sue Miller, president of Illinois Realtors, alluded to. There has been both a shortage in materials and a shortage in wood for lumber yards.
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