By Erin McCann

COVID-19 has affected so many things, one being the real estate market. Every day I see new for sale signs going up around town. Many families have come and gone and this all started during quarantine. I started wondering why this was happening, so I decided to reach out to Patrese Lattimer of Lattimer Realty. 

She said, ¨We are currently experiencing a strong demand from New York, Jersey City and Hoboken areas (Urban to Suburban migration). This trend has been a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic. People are able to work from home and are looking for more room in their homes. These areas in Hoboken and New York are expensive to live in and social desirability to be there (restaurants, theaters, bars, transportation to work) is not so desirable now.¨. 

Along with this, a lot of empty nesters have decided to sell their Caldwell and West Caldwell homes to take advantage of the new real estate marketplace. This has created a win-win situation for both buyers and sellers. The buyer is getting a quick sale usually at asking price and the seller is getting a home in a good community with a good school district. The buyer is also benefiting from historically low mortgage interest rates. 

During these times, many people are thinking about where they want to and do not want to live. The switch for many to tele-commuting or working from home has resulted in more people moving to places they really want to live, places they would not have moved to before the pandemic. Forbes.com explains this as the acceleration factor: ¨The places where Americans are moving in the midst of COVID-19 may finally be expressing a more fundamental preference for how they really want to live instead of where they have to stay because of their job location or where their kids go to school.¨ 

This all seemed unprecedented a year ago. COVID-19 has changed many industries, most for the worse; however residential real estate is lucky to have been affected positively.