How will Covid-19 affect the market?
I am an investor who focuses on multi-family residential properties in Grand Rapids, MI. I am considering to move forward with another investment in Detroit, Grand Rapids, or even North Carolina (open to suggestions within NC). My partners however are concerned with Covid-19's affects on:
Supply/Inventory- Are more people selling because they are facing economic hardships? As a result have you noticed a down trend since January in price or do you expect a down trend in price later on in the year due to an increase in supply?
Unemployment- Although a good amount of unemployment is associated with furlough from Covid-19, it still a remains a concern for rental property investors like myself that a lot have also completely lost their jobs. If people can't pay rent, how can you make money/afford a loan assuming you don't pay cash? How do you cope with this concern?
Demand- This is a topic that I always considered to become more relevant in the long term but Covid-19 has proved to many companies that expensive office buildings on the East/West coasts are not as necessary as they once were and are moving more to full-time working from home. This enables employees to move to more affordable places while maintaining their current job. As a result we might see more demand on in-land properties and therefore driving property value up.
Therefore, the goal of this post is to get a pulse on the market or at least that of my fellow real estate enthusiasts on BiggerPockets.com. General outlooks on the real estate market would be interesting of course, but I'd also like to hear something more focused on Michigan/North Carolina. Also if you are an agent that can help me better understand the NC market or have some inventory that you think I might be interesting in, feel free to message me and we can setup some time to discuss.
Thanks in advance.