Home Buyers Keep On Buying

You almost have to squint to see major differences between the trajectory of each of these lines over the past few years.  The three lines above are showing the cumulative number of buyers signing contracts at any given point in the year.

Looking back to the middle of March, just when we were starting to see effects of COVID-19 on our daily lives, the pace of contract activity in 2020 was ahead of the past two years...

Jan 1, 2020 - Mar 15, 2020 = 265 contracts

Jan 1, 2019 - Mar 15, 2019 = 242 contracts

Thus, as of March 15, buyers were 9.5% ahead of last year's pace.

Now, two thirds of the way through May, things have flipped flopped...

Jan 1, 2020 - May 20, 2020 = 536 contracts

Jan 1, 2019 - May 20, 2019 = 565 contracts

Thus, as of May 20, buyers are 5% behind last year's pace.

So...

1.  Home buyer activity has slowed in 2020 over the past two months.

2.  Home buying activity in 2020 is only 5% behind last year!

I expect we'll see things start to speed back up at some point -- but it hasn't seemed to have started yet...