The Virginia REALTORS^® has conducted surveys of members on April 3-4, March 27-28, and March 20-21, 2020, asking members if and how the COVID-19 outbreak has impacted home buyer and seller interest and behavior over the prior week. This week’s survey was conducted over April 3-4. We received responses from 2,257 REALTORS^® that had been actively conducting business during the past week.

Highlights from the survey of Virginia REALTORS^® members include:

• Far fewer Virginia REALTORS^® say their business has been unaffected by COVID-19. Just 11.8% said that they conducted business over the prior week with no COVID-19 impact. The shares had been 17.9% and 19.6% in the two earlier surveys.
• The most common issue remains buyers deciding to delay a home purchase. Nearly two-thirds (64.0%) of Virginia REALTORS^® said they had a buyer delaying a home search.
• This week we asked about financing, given all of the volatility in the mortgage market. More than one quarter (25.7%) of Virginia REALTORS^® members indicated that they were working with a buyer who was having trouble getting financing.
• Compared to last week’s survey, Virginia REALTORS^® members indicate that they are more likely to have postponed bringing a new listing to market (50.3%). They have also seen more sellers canceling open houses (24.1%) and removing listings from the market completely (16.0%) in the week ending April 3-4.

A note about surveys: This is not a randomized sample survey of Virginia REALTORS^® members. However, the number of responses and the geographic coverage of respondents make it possible to draw conclusions about the population of Virginia REALTORS^® conducting business in the prior week, with a certain level of confidence. The statistics from this survey have a margin of error of +/- 3%.

The results from these on-going surveys of Virginia REALTORS® members indicate that the challenges in the housing market continue to increase. Virginia REALTORS^® will continue to monitor the economic and housing market impacts of COVID-19 in Virginia. Each Thursday afternoon at 4:00 p.m., we will host a Facebook Live on the impact of COVID-19 on the economy and the housing market. For more information, please contact Lisa Sturtevant (lsturtevant@virginiarealtors.org).