covid-19:
pandemic or possibility?

Already, experts are seeing slowdowns in home showings which are now largely done virtually and expect that permits for new construction might also drop. Quotes similar to these are being written every day in dozens of articles nationwide this one attributed to The Texas Tribune.

Unemployment is high in every part of the globe. The massive loss of employers leads to the closure of many businesses. Another example, the Innovation Map, explains, The analysis, published April 2nd, indicates business closures in Harris County which represents two-thirds of the region’s population have caused a 27 percent drop in the county’s daily economic output. The senior vice president of research at the Greater Houston Partnership Patrick Jankowski, anticipates the Houston area tallying job losses of at least 200,000.

However, this does not mean that people are unable to work, as most essential retailers such as Walmart are still hiring and offering jobs to middle-class America. Walmart recently committed to hiring more than 150,000 new associates by the end of May. Since then, Walmart has had over 1 million applicants, hiring an average of 5,000 people per day. In addition, according to MarketSpace Capital’s co-development partners, they have seen little to no decrease in work demand and pricing in licensed professionals (architects, engineers, surveyors, etc.) in the past quarter, and hardly any drop for Skilled Trade Workers (electrical, plumbing, HVAC, etc.).

Although the most recent macro data (as of June 5th) is encouraging in that it shows that supported by lower interest rates, mortgage applications for house purchases have surged and are now running above their pre-virus rate and up by 2.7% year-over-year in May, it does, however, reflect that those home purchases are concentrated among older, wealthier individuals, who are less likely to have been laid off in recent weeks and who are more likely to have accumulated a pot of savings during the lockdowns. Consequently, such a “V” shaped recovery is unlikely to be replicated across the entire economy.

And with physical distancing likely to be required for the foreseeable future, there are still some industries that will simply not recover providing credibility to the idea that the residential housing market will stage only a partial recovery this year.

The Perfect Storm

According to Dr. Masaki Oishi, Chairman of MarketSpace Capital, the universe and size of the ‘renter pool’ is growing due to the void in home purchases, lack of liquidity, unemployment trends and the consumer confidence has chilled the enthusiasm of people wanting to rush out and make an investment in a home. Consequently, the psychographic impact of the current environment is forcing people to continue to rent.

The Pew Research Center defines middle–class or middle–income households as those with incomes that are two-thirds to double the 2018 U.S. median household income of $63,179 (per the Federal reserve of St. Louis). According to this formula, Pew would determine that middle–class Americans have median household incomes ranging from approximately $41,698 to $126,358. As a result of the lower average household income, due primarily to an increase in unemployment and first-time recipients of federal assistance, middle class America just got a little bit larger due to COVID-19, states Chairman Oishi.

However, in terms of construction, the largest single two line-items of a real estate development generally are the Hard Construction Costs and Interest Expense. Looking around, it is apparent that goods such as gasoline, cars, entertainment, hotels, cruises and airline tickets have become cheaper. This is also true for material goods, or hard construction costs. According to the Markets Insider, there are visible drops in prices for wood, metals, and oil and natural gas.

What this means for those in construction and manufacturing, the cost of raw materials is significantly cheaper, thereby resulting in a better opportunity for those who wish to develop and build assets like multifamily housing. According to an article from PNC Insights, Overall, the cost of materials used to build multifamily housing had been expected to rise somewhat more than the rate of inflation overall in 2020, after rising just 0.7% in 2019, according to the ACG’s analysis of the Producer Price Indexes kept by the Bureau of the Labor Statistics. That’s a slight rise compared to the 4.2% increase in 2018, as investors and contractors worried about a series of ongoing disputes between the United States and its largest trading partners. However, this rise has not materialized.

From an interest rate standpoint, COVID-19 brought an extraordinary amount of uncertainty and considerable risk to the economy, according to the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). Interest rates will be kept near zero until a recovery is firmly in place and the Federal Reserve is committed to using a full range of tools to support the US economy. Fed officials also noted on April 29th that a second wave of the coronavirus outbreak with another round of strict restrictions could drag the US economy deeper into recession prompting a jump in unemployment and renewed downward pressure on inflation. Consequently, the Fed left the target range for its federal funds’ rate unchanged at 0-0.25 per cent on April 29th.