Coronavirus jars May housing stats

Metro-area housing stats in May, technically speaking, were plumb crazy.

Even with the number of new listings up 8% (to 2,329), inventory still fell to just 1.8 months (at 2,936), pending sales shot up 25.5% (to 2,371), and closings plummeted 24.3% (to 1,541), according to the Oklahoma City Metro Association of Realtors.

The market in May seemed to be saying: “Hurry up and wait.”

Some people were in a rush, and some were holding back.

Housing, then, reflected what seemed to be the general response to rising incidents of the coronavirus and continued reopening of the economy.

`'Buyers are rushing back into the housing market, enticed by record low mortgage rates and a pandemic-induced need to nest like never before,” as CNBC put it at midweek.

Mortgage applications to buy a home jumped 4% last week from the week before “and were a remarkable 21% higher than one year ago,” according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's seasonally adjusted index. CNBC noted it was the ninth week in a row of increases and the highest volume in more than 11 years.

For their part, homebuilders kept on building.

Home starts here through May were up 4.8% compared with the first five months of 2019, according to Norman-based Dharma Inc.'s Builder Report.

Builders obtained permits to build 2,224 houses since the first of the year, according to the publication, which tracks home construction in Oklahoma City, unincorporated Oklahoma County, Bethany, Blanchard, Choctaw, Edmond, Midwest City, Moore, Mustang, Newcastle, Noble, Norman, Shawnee and Yukon.

About one-third of

the 426 permits issued in May, 143, were in the $100,000-$150,000, firsttime-buyer price range, about 27% higher than the monthly average, Dharma reported. There is a shortage of houses in that price range, according to Realtors.

Multiple offers and houses selling in less than a week are common at the entry level, Realtors say.

Across the country, single-family permits gained 11.9% in May, “in a sign that the housing market continues to show forward momentum,” according to the National Association of Home Builders.

“We are seeing many positive economic indicators that point to a recovery, including low interest rates, rising demand and an increase in mortgage applications,” said Dean Mon, chairman of the NAHB and a homebuilder and developer from Shrewsbury, New Jersey.

What's next? With mortgage rates dipping into record low territory again, and so many people eschewing social distancing guidance and doing what is right in their own eyes, brace for more craziness in June's statistics.