Did this pandemic make you want to buy a new house?

You're not alone. You may have heard that the real estate market was booming in 2020. It seems counter-intuitive, but after a little research, it's now very clear. While mortgage rates are at historic lows, this alone doesn't explain the boost in home sales and home prices. I wanted to dig deeper into the psychology and job markets to find out more.

In a Forbes article by Ryan Serhant, he sites the new work-from-home environment as one of the top three motivations for buying a home. Our homes are now our offices. This can present daily challenges if your current home doesn't facilitate working from home, and often kids schooling at home as well.

A large number of people who have had small complaints about the size or layout of their homes that went unattended due to being out of the home most of the day now see those small annoyances as big problems, inspiring people to find a home that suits their current needs.

A study by Nicholas Bloom, Professor of Economics at Stanford’s School of Humanities and Sciences, states that 42% of our work force now works from home full time. These work-from-home jobs are critical to sustaining our economy, and it doesn't look like they're going away any time soon. In fact, Bloom expects the number of work-from-home days to "increase fourfold from pre-COVID levels" as a great number of major corporations are preparing to offer more and more work-from-home opportunities.

Bottom line, the stigma of working-from-home is largely gone. With access to so many technological solutions like Zoom, Slack, and Microsoft Teams to name a few, there is no longer a need for people to be in the office every day. As corporations take notice and shift jobs out of the office permanently, those lingering thoughts of moving to a more conducive work-from-home environment come to the forefront of your mind.

Also, with no commute, drive times are no longer a factor. Always wanted to live in a certain neighborhood but didn't want to make the drive? With that factor off the table, where would you love to live?

Ready to make a change? Click here!

This blog was written by Toni Therrien of Parapluie. Need writing services? Click here.