Plymouth Realtor: Remote Work Changing Needs of Homebuyers
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a number of different changes to everyday life. Many people are working from home, children find themselves having to do distance learning and people uncomfortable with returning to fitness centers are converting rooms to at-home gyms.
A Plymouth realtor says all these factors are impacting the desires of potential homebuyers.
“A lot of times we would get a person with a couple of kids who would be looking at a three-bedroom, two-bath house, a pretty standard home. And maybe if it had an office space or a fourth bedroom it would be like a bonus,” said Jerry Moscowitz of Re/Max Results. “But now we’ve got an environment where a lot of people are working from home. One, sometimes both, and all of a sudden that house no longer works for them.”
With remote working, realtors see more homebuyers requesting larger homes with more office space.
Moscowitz says things that homebuyers may have never even considered in February or March have changed since the onset of the pandemic.
With working remotely becoming more commonplace, buyers are starting to look at bigger houses where they can set up additional office space or home gyms.
Proximity to workplace not as important
There’s also a geographic shift too. Because people are working remotely, they no longer feel the need to have a home close to their workplace.
“And if they’re in a place where they feel this is going to be a permanent change, they no longer have to worry about being so close to their work,” Moscowitz said. “It expands where they can go and buy a house, and sometimes that can mean going to a place that maybe they can get more house for the money.”
Meanwhile, in case you were wondering about the status of the Twin Cities housing market, Moscowitz says it’s stayed extremely strong, despite the pandemic, thanks to low interest rates and the fact that there are more buyers than sellers.
According to a monthly sales report from Minneapolis Area Realtors, the median sales price in the Twin Cities is $313,000.
