A watershed moment is a turning point or dividing line in social life. 366 days ago, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (“WHO”) declared the “novel coronavirus” a pandemic. From there, the consequences of our ineptitudes cascaded across the country; entire states were shut down, politicians turned anti-safety precautions into political rallying cries, and adults across the country reverted to juvenile behavior. Today, the death toll is over half-a-million, many of us work from home, and our children are still being educated through Zoom. Miraculously, despite the last 366 days, housing prices increased by 14.3% during this time.
As more Americans are vaccinated, we hear an ever-louder buzzing about “back to normal,” but none of us really know what the new normal will be. Change is born of necessity, and the pandemic necessitated a lot of change; much of it for the better. At the Chernov Team we pride ourselves on keeping a finger on the pulse of the housing market and believe the post-COVID housing market will change in two major ways:
First, COVID forced a lot of employers to adapt to remote work, many of whom wouldn’t have even considered the option. In the vast majority of non-service-related jobs, remote work is actually beneficial to all parties involved; owners can reduce the overhead of office-space, and employees can reduce the inefficient use of time known as traffic. Moreover, with most things shut down, the appeal of city life became particularly unappealing. Given that the virus struck just as the Millennial generation reached an appropriate age to start families, it makes sense that people would begin looking to newer housing markets. Over the last 366 days, we’ve seen a large number of people leaving the city in favor of the suburbs. Of course, there’s a good chance the suburbs will be morphed into some type of city-suburb hybrid – why can’t we have it all.
Second, keeping in line with the notion that remote work will not be disappearing entirely, home design will place a premium on home offices. At the Chernov Team we expect that homes that put money into developing a fantastic home office, and market that home office, will see better results than those who don’t. The fact of the matter is that remote work has been the future for a while, and the older generation was stubbornly resisting that trend. COVID forced society to move towards remote work despite a hesitance to do so, and it’s working. Millennials have embraced the remote-work paradigm-shift, and also happen to be the largest group of home buyers on the market – invest in a home office, and sellers will be richly rewarded.
At the Chernov Team we understand that knowledge is power, and knowledge of where the housing market is headed and how it is changing is powerful knowledge indeed. At the Chernov Team we know that whoever comes to the table most prepared leaves with the most, and the Chernov Team always leaves the table with the most.