Last year was a surprisingly good year for the housing market. Despite the coronavirus and its economic impact, residential real estate was hot. Buyer demand was high and homes for sale sold quickly. Still, there were plenty of people who delayed their plans to buy or sell a home because of the uncertainty caused by the pandemic. Whether or not they return to the market this year will play a big role in determining what conditions look like for prospective home buyers and sellers. According to one new survey, it might come down to how quickly the coronavirus vaccine is distributed. For example, survey results show 52 percent of respondents said they’d feel comfortable moving to a new home right now. However, that number rises to 70 percent when asked if they’d feel comfortable after widespread vaccine distribution. Similarly, among homeowners who said the vaccine would factor into whether they decided to sell their home or not, almost 80 percent said it’d make them more likely to move. In short, it looks like there’s a significant number of Americans who’ll be ready to make a move once the vaccine has been distributed. How quickly that happens will have an effect on everything from inventory to affordability. (source)

When a home seller accepts an offer and a contract to buy is signed, that home’s sale is considered pending until it closes weeks later. Because of the gap between contract signings and closings, pending sales can be a good indicator of future home sales. That’s why the National Association of Realtors tracks them each month. In January, their Pending Home Sales Index hit an all-time high for the month, despite dropping almost 3 percent from December. Contract signings are now up 13 percent from last year at the same time. Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, says they’d be even higher if there were more homes for sale. “Pending home sales fell in January because there are simply not enough homes to match the demand on the market,” Yun said. “That said, there has been an increase in permits and requests to build new homes.” Regionally, the West and Northeast saw significant declines month-over-month, while the South and Midwest were relatively flat from one month earlier. (source)