On May 16th the Outer Banks will open back up for anyone to come and go as they please. As the global pandemic continues to hinder all sense of normalcy, there will be many opinions floating around from locals, homeowners, and tourists. Whether or not one believes the decision-makers along the Outer Banks have properly handled the Covid-19 crisis in a way they agree with is similar to having them correctly choose the side of a coin facing up multiple times in a row. Even in perfect conditions, it is impossible to make everyone happy. Unfortunately, they were placed in a position to act quickly and effectively, and they did what they felt they had to do. Everyone can dwell on whether or not they made the right decision or, as a group, we can collectively move forward and hope the summer months and remainder of the year can be a reminder for why the OBX holds a special place in each of our hearts.
In local news, the tourism industry will experience an astounding change in how things will be for the foreseeable future. Rental companies will have to learn how to effectively change their operations concerning everything from possibly changing check-in times, cleaning policies, and responding to guests’ issues. Restaurants and other businesses will have to navigate around social distancing and new capacity requirements. It’s a no-brainer that every aspect of living and visiting the beaches this summer will have to adapt to a new standard. Towns are currently discussing ways to decrease spending, and some have even mentioned not having fireworks and other 4th of July activities. We are in uncharted waters, folks. The best advice we can come up with is we are all in this together. The Outer Banks cannot thrive without tourism. As the saying goes “this too shall pass.” We look forward to this being another thing of the past soon.
In real estate news, the year has only completed its first quarter, and what a roller coaster it has been. As we previously mentioned, the first few months started off strong. As the circumstances drastically changed, so did our local economy. March’s home sales continued to rise, whereas April’s sales plummeted 23%. Without a doubt, we can say this decrease was solely due to the pandemic. On the other hand, it is worth noting that sales for the year are still above the sales for this time last year! Let’s hope the market awakes fully rested from its slumber and rebounds quickly. There is a new section on the MLS statistics report that shows the dramatic decline in showings from mid-March through the first week in May. Once visitors are allowed back this month, we strongly believe we will notice showing requests return to normal levels. Let’s hope we are accurately guessing the right side of the coin!
We’ve included the OBAR statistics for April* for your review. If you would like a more tailored report with specific figures for your neighborhood, please let us know.
If you’ve been thinking about selling, we are happy to assist you with a free market analysis of your property. If you or anyone you know is interested in buying a property, we would love to help find the perfect home on the Outer Banks. Please note we are more than happy to preview homes for anyone, and we can video call from a property if that is of interest to you.
The OBX Homes Team is making an effort to help the environment and decrease our paper output. If you’d like to help in reducing our paper use, please send us a current email so we can add you to our paperless mailing list. We will send you an email each month with a copy of our updated owner note and statistics report. We appreciate your effort to help with this and thank you.
Please don’t hesitate to call or email us if you have any questions or should you need anything at all.
Stay safe and stay healthy,
The OBX Homes Team
