Sales Go Down But Home Searches Go Up

New home listings and sales have dramatically dropped since the pandemic hit, but traffic to real estate sites has actually gone up. Why is that, you ask?

Well! According to data from Zillow, there are now more buyers actively looking for homes compared to a year ago. More people looking to buy property? In the middle of a global health crisis??

Yep! There's still a ton of interest among buyers (probably more so now as they're stuck inside their less-than-ideal homes). San Francisco, among other major cities, saw a huge drop in listing views right after the pandemic hit, but has since bounced back to much higher levels than this time last year.

So what? This is significant because demand for housing is still there—it's just a matter of waiting for the supply to return to the market. With more buyers starting their search again and listings slowly trickling into the market, there's signs of pent-up demand and a backlog of listings bubbling beneath the surface just waiting to pop.