Buying Home in Pandemic

During pandemic housing sales.jpg if you're trying to buy a house right now during the pandemic...good luck.

An already stressful process...is even more nerve wracking now.

But... abc 36's christy bollinger found out...it's not so bad if you're trying to sell.

Christy"guide realty says buyers are facing some unique challenges during this pandemic, like the fact there's a lot more buyers than sellers right now."

And ohhh does first time home buyer marcellus barksdale know that.

Buyer-marcellus"the hardest part about the whole process was actually finding a house just with it being so competitive and with it being a sellers market."

Expecting their first child...he and his girlfriend started looking for a home this summer.

Buyer"we thought we found the perfect house and we put an offer in, the house became available that morning we saw it later that morning put an offer in first thing that afternoon and there was already 5 or 6 offers so kind of got discouraged."

His realtor and mom, ivy barksdale, says she's working with more buyers than ever before... but the number of houses for sale is at a record low.

Realtor-ivy"i mean houses are selling same day certainly within three days."

A positive..

Interest rates are historically low..

Sometimes under three-percent.

But the high demand is driving up the price.

Owner/realtor- raquel"we already struggle with an affordability issue and now we have our median pricepoint here in lexington that's 234,000 dollars."

Owner of guide realty, raquel carter, says buyers have it the hardest, but often, sellers are also buying.

Raquel"they may have to write 5 or 6 offers on properties before they can get one and each of those offers can be over asking price, can be as is and they may still not get the house they selected."

Barskdale also had to go above his original price range.

Buyer"really we're super blessed to finally be able to get an offer even accepted."

He closes on the house at the end of the month, around the same time his baby is due.

An exciting new beginning...after a long journey...home.

Christy bollinger, abc 36 news.

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