How COVID-19 is impacting military PCS moves

We want to talk you through the changes COVID-19 is bringing to the JBLM military community and the overall impact on our local Tacoma and Seattle markets for buyers and sellers. The novel Coronavirus will influence the real estate industry for months if not years to come and understanding how current and upcoming trends affect you will help you make the right decision for your family. 

Military moves 

In a normal year, we’d be heading into PCS season right now. Our military has put PCS on indefinite hold so no one is transferring in and out of JBLM at this time. This of course not only has an impact on people who were planning on moving into the community, but it affects families who had plans to sell their homes soon. Now, without orders, many are putting selling plans on hold till further notice. 

Buyers who had orders to relocate here in the fall are now postponing their moves because their orders have been pulled all together and they’re stuck in limbo until the current situation changes. 

Local market trends

Here, real estate depends on the military community with transfers in and out of JBLM for the market to move. There’s no influx of homes hitting the market because people aren’t leaving right now. Our local economy is feeling the effects of all those people in limbo with everything on hold. 

When this does lift, a domino effect will occur. There will be a rush of orders assigned at one time which brings a rush of new homes to the market and a rush of people moving here with new orders. But right now, we of course don’t know when this will be released.  

Those outside of the JBLM community in our corner of the Pacific Northwest are still planning to sell homes in the summertime. So even though we may not have as many military sellers during peak season, we’ll still see people listing their homes.  

Is it still a good time to buy? 

We’re getting a lot of questions from our customers about what the market is doing and whether or not they should still plan to buy this year. We try to be as straightforward with our clients as possible and transparency is so important right now. While it’s hard to predict the future right now (as much as we wish we had a crystal ball), here’s our honest feedback. 

• Interest rates are still low so it’s a great time to take advantage of those rates while you can.

• Overall we’re experiencing a shift to a buyers market so now’s the time to buy.

• Sellers are more flexible in negotiating right now with fewer offers coming on (for example, a couple months ago, sellers weren’t paying closing costs because there weren’t as many competitive offers). 

• For sellers, things are still selling but it’s just slowing down. Setting your expectations and making sure you’re in a solid place with your financing options and jobs is key. 

• Many buyers in our military community can still take advantage of VA loan benefits. 

We’ll know more about where the market is headed approximately a month after this is lifted. It’s important to keep in mind that this is all temporary and we’ll be in a completely different market in the 3rd-4th quarters of 2020 and should be seeing solid trends again by then. 

It’s important to remember that during the 2008 crash, Seattle didn’t get hit as hard as the rest of the nation because we have such a strong employment rate. We’re really in a great corner of the upper Pacific Northwest and we’re very proud of the resilience of our communities and local economy. 

With everything going on in the world right now, it’s so easy to focus on the doom and gloom and let fear get in the way. Maybe you’re feeling this, too. But we will come out of this as a community and we’ll build our new normal together.

As always, we love to be a resource for you and your PCS, so if you have any questions about relocating to JBLM, we are happy to assist.

- JBLMHomeFinder.com

E: team@jblmhomefinder.com