PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The housing market has been on fire — and it's all happening while we're going through a global pandemic.
"I will say that as long as I've been in this industry, which is now going on two decades, we have never seen demand anywhere near this level," said Ira Brownstein, founder and president of Mortgage Country, on the KYW Newsradio In Depth podcast.
He said the market is playing catch-up. Mortgage rates are low and homes are selling way above market price. Brownstein says there are so many buyers out there, and some are willing to take risks.
"We've had many buyers that have actually purchased homes sight unseen. We've had a handful in Florida, one in Virginia and we had one here locally on the Main Line," he shared.
"This demand is not going to slow down for the foreseeable future, so I think sellers should look to put their homes on the market when they want to sell and I think they need to be prepared for what's on the other side of the equation."
But Brownstein steers clear of comparing this housing boom to the early 2000s fiasco. He said people aren't just speculating on houses right now. They're looking for homes that are more than just a place to live.
"A home has become a place to learn, a place to provide some level of daycare and certainly it's a place to work," he said. "I think because of that, it has in part accelerated and changed our perception of what our home is to us and it's created just a tremendous amount of demand in the marketplace."
