Coronavirus Crisis: Experts discuss impact on real estate market

LOS ANGELES - As COVID-19 continues to spread worldwide, many people are worried about the future of the real estate market.

Officials say sellers are canceling transactions, and brokerages are pulling homes from the market.

"The homes aren't selling, inventory is growing, and buyers are on the sideline," Tarek El Moussa, host of HGTV’s "Flip or Flop," said. 

Another casualty of the coronavirus crisis: the real estate market.

"It's a supply and demand.  If you have more homes for sale and less demand is causes the prices to drop. It is absolutely a buyers’ market but the problem is you can't get into a house to see them," he said. 

As a result, real estate agents are turning to technology to replace the in-person experience.

The number of 3-D home tours created on Zillow went up 326 percent on March 20.

In addition, the electronic signing of documents has become more widespread. 

The number of deals that typically occur is also seeing a shift. 

“On a weekly basis, I get about 30 to 40 phone calls a day. Now today I've had about 5 to 10 phone calls,” Real Estate Agent Mahsheed Barghisavar said. 

According to a recent survey from the California Association of Realtors, a third of California agents reported changes in seller behavior such as canceling open houses or requiring buyers to take off their shoes and use hand sanitizer before entering a home.

However, only 4 percent of sellers removed their homes from the market. El Moussa says if you keep your house on the market to stay open-minded. 

“If you are in the market to sell your house in today's market, you want to sell it fast. You're going to have to sell it to an investor at a discount. Whatever you think your house is worth is a lot different today from two months ago," 

El Moussa believes it really is a waiting game before we know the magnitude of the impact on the real estate market.