Amid the stay-at-home order, prospective home buyers in San Diego and across the country turned to the Internet in April to search for new property.
The online real estate service Zillow reported that page views for homes listed for sale in San Diego County fell 25% year-over-year during mid March, but were up 27% in mid April.
“The uptick in people browsing for-sale listings combined with high-intent requests to be connected with an agent reveals the resilience of Americans’ interest in shopping for homes,” said Zillow economist Jeff Tucker. “These are encouraging signals and time will tell if this interest will turn into more offers to buy and transactions.”
The March dip and April recovery were sharper in San Diego than the national average, which was 19% down followed by an 18% recovery. Cities in Texas recorded the biggest increases in April — 56% for Houston, 40% for San Antonio and 39% for Dallas. Los Angeles stood out in California with a 32% jump in online home traffic.
Tucker said cities showing a bigger increase in home buyer interest could also see a faster economic recovery from the pandemic, but cautioned that “time will tell.”
According to Zillow, there’s some evidence that the increased online activity is leading to sales. While pending sales of homes in San Diego County were down 22.5% year-over-year for the week ended April 19, they were at least up from the week before.
