Stay Home, Stay Home, Stay Home. We’ve all heard this a lot over the past few months. Many of us have been doing our best to cut down on our constantly moving lifestyles. We are in unchartered territory, and most of us don’t like it. We don’t like not having control, not knowing exactly what’s going on or what to believe, and not knowing when this will end. Many mornings I’ve awoken thinking the world is the way it was only to discover it isn’t just a bad dream – it’s the new reality. And there are some scary predictions out there that we haven’t experienced the last of an errant virus. The last two months of the new normal has led many homeowners to rethink the way they live in their home. It has now become an office for working at home; a school for children; a gym to stay in shape; and a place for recreation.
This repurposing of our homes has people evaluating whether their home still meets their needs or if some changes are necessary. In some cases, adult children have moved back home, and, in others, there are aging parents who have moved in for the first time.
Staying at home and sheltering in place has been deemed necessary, but how much togetherness can one family take and how long is it going to last? I’m not much of an alcoholic drinker, but if my three kids were still living at home right now, I’d be YouTubing how to make alcoholic beverages that taste like soda pop. “Temporary” is stretching into longer than expected and even when vaccines and treatments are discovered, will things really go back to the way they were? As states begin to open, are we doing that right? Will we be needing to go back “home” again if Covid-19 cases start to spike a second time around?
Home is a place to call your own; to raise your family, share with your friends and to feel safe and secure. Covid-19 has changed the scope of feeling safe and secure at home and may now be considered a sanctuary of safety more than ever before.
Many of the chief economists in the country feel that real estate will likely lead the country out of this recession. The housing market is experiencing low inventory and has for almost a decade. Building has not kept up with demand and prices of existing homes have continued to go up.
With 30-year mortgage rates at close to 3.0% and prices expected to continue to rise, an investment in a home can fit your needs and show returns in satisfaction, comfort, enjoyment, and monetary value.
If you are going to be spending more time in your home for all the reasons mentioned, maybe now is the time to consider finding a home that better suits your needs. It can be done in a responsible and safe manner using property videos to screen, masks, hand sanitizer, removal of shoes, driving in separate cars, and using paper towels when touching anything inside of another person’s home. We don’t want to take germs in and we don’t want to take germs out. People still have to move to and from, and real estate has been a very reliable investment while the stock market has wildly fluctuated.
The upside to all of this is that many have rediscovered their children, spouses, gardening, pets (adoptions are literally through the roof – pun intended), writing, visiting by phone, reading, TV, walking, biking, hiking, and themselves. At the center of all this is the HOME. It’s a very important place right now because you are important to many. Take care!
