One of the interesting anomalies of the COVID economy was the housing market. When this thing first broke back in March, you’d have to look long and hard to find someone who was predicting the Golden Age of Housing was about to unfold for the next six months.
But that’s exactly what happened. People couldn’t travel so they directed discretionary spending towards enhancing their residence and that included buying a new one. Sales of new and used homes have been robust this year – more than would have been expected in the early days of the lockdown.
Mortgage rates fell and liquidity pumped into the marketplace strengthened the residential investment mindset. A survey from ScotiaBank found it was Millennials who were most likely to accelerate their plans to buy a home as the COVID lockdown occurred. They were more optimistic about the outlook for lower home prices than older generations who felt housing values would sustain themselves.
But not all of us were planning to buy a new property… one-quarter of those surveyed said they had plans to renovate instead.
