ArkLaTex Real Estate in 2020: Boom, Bust or Both?

Scott Hughes from the Northwest Louisiana Association of Realtors talks about the housing marking in Shreveport and Bossier in 2020 and has some numbers that many will find surprising.

Hughes begins by saying the the pandemic did have a effect on the housing market. "But I don't think it's in the way that people thought it would be," he says, "And in all honesty, we didn't anticipate what happened either. I have the numbers and they did surprise us this year."

"It is true," Hughes continuing, talking about record growth since early summer, "In 2019 we were at a plateau, already the highest we had been at...for home sales and for volume. when we hit (the COVID shutdown) we thought that would be a detriment to the real estate market. April was a little sluggish. People didn't know what was happening. We had some new protocols in terms of how we show a house - more online and virtual showings and closings.

"But starting about May or June we saw an explosion in home sales like nothing we'd ever seen. We don't really have any inventory to sell."

And what about the near future? "I think it's fair to say that what's happened the last eight months...I don't think it can continue forever," Hughes says, "Interest rates will remain key. (Low interest rates) will obviously continue to spur investment. But at a certain point we have to hit a ceiling. We have only so many houses to sell and only so many people who can move or refinance.

"We anticipate sales will remain strong in the first half of 2021, but there's going to come a point where we just don't have the inventory to sell. But housing sales and values will probably remain strong for another six months."