About this episode
In today’s Daily Download episode, HousingWire Digital Producer Alcynna Lloyd interviews Odeta Kushi , deputy chief economist at First American Financial, about the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on this year’s homebuying demand. For some background on the interview, here’s what has happened in the industry so far: At the end of February and the beginning of March, it was projected that the spring homebuying season would arrive early. In fact, January 2020 was the strongest January for purchase mortgage applications in 11 years, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association . The beginning of March also showed that homebuyers were anxious to get moving into homebuying season, but that was before the coronavirus changed everything. Although there were still homes being sold in early March, they were likely under contract in February, before COVID-19 forced most of the U.S. economy to shut down, Redfin said . But towards the end of March , when stay-at-home orders were put into place and people were left unemployed, there was a 148% year-over-year increase in homes being delisted during the week ending March 29, coming to a total of 28,140 homes pulled off the market, according to Redfin. The Daily Download examines the most captivating articles reported from the HousingWire newsroom. Each afternoon, HousingWire provides its readers with a deeper look into the stories that are not only chronicling the biggest announcements within the housing finance industry but are also helping Move Markets Forward . Hosted by the HW team and produced by Alcynna Lloyd. HousingWire articles covered in this episode: New listings and home sales drop in what would have been peak homebuying season Mortgage rate drops to within 1 basis point of all-time low Housing starts plummet to a five-year low Mortgage refinancings set to surge to a 17-year high April home sales take biggest hit in almost a decade