THE Covid-19 pandemic arrested the plans of millions of Americans to purchase a home. But what if you lock someone down in a home they had already mentally moved out of? Might they pour their energy into touring homes online to produce a short list of targets? And might they get pre-approved for a mortgage so it’s a simple matter of income verification once the economy reopened and they’d submitted an offer on a home?
Of course they would, which helps explain the huge surge in the Mortgage Bankers Association of America’s index tracking applications for loans to buy homes. That gauge has risen for nine straight weeks to reach its highest level since the start of 2009, which defies logic when you consider that more than 44 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits since mid-March. No doubt that some of this is tied to the minor exodus from densely populated cities. After all, long commutes are less of an issue now that we’ve seen the efficacy of working from home play out in real time.
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