March home sales lagging, but Realtors are adapting to help buyers
File photo / Laurie Schreiber
February home sales and prices were up. Realtors are adapting to client needs in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak.
A comparison of February 2019 with February 2020 showed a 5.75% increase in the number of single-family existing homes sold in the state, from 818 to 865.
According to Maine Listings data released this week, the median sales price for the 865 homes sold increased 8.45% from a year ago, from $200,000 to $216,900.
“February 2020 was an especially strong month for real estate sales, recording the second highest number of February sales since we began keeping statistics 20 years ago,” Tom Cole, 2020 president of the Maine Association of Realtors and managing broker of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate The Masiello Group in Brunswick, said in a news release.
Now, residential realtors are adapting to client and customer concerns around the COVID-19 outbreak, he said.
“Concern for the health and safety of realtors’ clients and customers is paramount,” he said. “Along with our industry partners and by following CDC guidelines, buyers and sellers that want to, or need to, are able to make their real estate goals happen.”
March lags
So far this month, residential sales are not on pace with a typical March, and Cole told Mainebiz some buyers have become more cautious.
“But other buyers are taking advantage of lower interest rates,” he said. Overall, “we expect to see a softening of the numbers.”
Cole said he and likely other Realtors are implementing strategies to protect clients and homeowners.
“I and, I’m sure, other realtors across Maine are not engaging in public or broker open houses,” he said. “That’s typically something where we would have a chance for more buyers to see a house.”
In-person viewings are still available, but are scheduled so that appointments don’t overlap. Cole said he and his agents keep nitrile gloves and disinfectant wipes on-hand.
“We’re being very cautious as we look at homes, particularly when people are living in the homes,” he said.
Virtual tours, a tool that has been used for years now, are becoming more prevalent.
“I’ll walk through a house with my iPhone and show them different parts of the home,” he said of potential buyers. “They ask questions and I can answer their questions. We’re doing that more and more, even for people who are close by who normally would be with a realtor at the house.”
Connected to that is an increase of the use of a longstanding contract addendum that allows buyers and sellers to put together a transaction in which the buyer hasn’t seen the house prior to making an offer. The addendum allows the transaction to proceed once the buyer has viewed the property.
“We’re seeing more use of that,” he said.
For the future, Cole said he expects the market to weather the crisis.
“We’ve had a very strong market,” he said. “The main engine behind the market is demand for housing. Certainly it will be different. But I do feel the market will be good, because people need homes.”
Quarterly results
In a comparison of Q1 2019 versus Q1 2020, Franklin County saw the largest rate of increase at 40.8%, followed by Piscataquis and Aroostook counties, at 30% and 29.7% respectively. Sale price increases were led by Somerset County, at 26%, followed by Franklin County at 24%.
In real numbers, Cumberland County saw the greatest number of houses sold, at 770, followed by York County’s 595. All counties saw an uptick in number of units sold.Cumberland County was the priciest territory, with the median sales price at $317,250 for Q1 2020.
Aroostook County is the state’s least expensive region and saw a nearly 10% median sales price drop in Q1 2020 to $73,750. Other counties seeing price drops were Hancock, Knox and Waldo.
Comparing February 2020 to February 2019 across the Northeast, sales increased 2.9% and the regional median sale price rose 8.2% to $295,400.
Nationwide, sales of single-family existing homes are up 7.3%, and the national median sale price jumped 8.1% to $272,400, according to the National Association of Realtors.
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