Expecting the unexpected
After 23 years of selling real estate, my mantra that
“nothing surprises me” has been put to the test in the
first half of 2020.
The year started much like 2018 and 2019 had, steady
and full of the promise of being another recovery year as
we all push the market-crash of 2008 farther and farther
into our rear-view mirrors.
January and February were tracking just as we’d hoped
and expected, with sales, prices, and inventory all
heading in favorable conditions.
Then, March brought Covid to the Lowcountry, and
all bets were off as we were thrust into a period of
uncertainty amid an unprecedented quarantine ordered
to slow the spread of the virus.
That’s when we started tracking certain key metrics in
the marketplace, charting them week by week alongside
critical dates and actions relating to the pandemic across
Beaufort County. Our resulting graph herein shows
some readily-predictable correlations, while it also
documents that much more of the unexpected.
By the time June rolled around, we were were in the
throws of a bonafide feeding frenzy that we came to
learn was more or less mirrored throughout the country.
Most markets across the nation, including right here
in the Lowcountry, were experiencing high demand,
low inventory, fast sales, multiple offers, and the like...
all developing in the blink of an eye, and with no small
sense of wonder and amazement.
But it wasn’t just the frenzied pace and impressive
volume of sales that came as a surprise in the wake of
New sales & key events amid the pandemic
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