“All of a Sudden a Lot of These Families Wanted a Yard”: How the Pandemic Gold Rush Is Remaking the Housing Market

’s house in Roxbury, Connecticut. Also: a Jacuzzi, a sauna, a volleyball court, a pool table, and three horses that graze on the sloping meadow in front of the white, colonial-style home.lives down the street. It’s a nice place; quiet and secluded. The Winthrops rent it out to vacationing New Yorkers and usually get a few weekend visitors per year. This year has been different. Their house has been booked solid since the pandemic started, for around $30,000 a month.

The rental market in Connecticut has been booming since the start of the coronavirus pandemic as New Yorkers flee the city in droves. “I’ve seen rental rates just skyrocket,” saidof C. Abedi Realty. “I mean, I have clients looking to rent with a $10,000 to $40,000 budget, and there’s not enough on the market. It’s insane.” Young stockbrokers or tech professionals working remotely have poured into regions outside of New York City. But the trend isn’t confined to rentals.

It may seem counterintuitive that after the 2008 financial debacle ignited a mortgage crisis, the pandemic-fueled recession could lead to a bullish housing market. But aside from the predatory lending and speculation that allowed the last mortgage crisis to explode, the fundamental trends in home purchases over the last six months are also different.

“People are looking to buy because one of the effects of the pandemic is how to shelter at home in a place that is conducive to sheltering at home,” said, professor of real estate and finance at Wharton. “That generates demand for those with resources to move to that spot where they can, in fact, be more comfortable at home while they wait this out.

Real estate agents in Connecticut have seen an increase in cash buyers and a spate of bidding wars; one realtor told me she saw 22 offers made on a single house. In Fairfield County, the wealthiest in Connecticut, the average price of a home sold since the beginning of March is 11.7% higher than during the same period last year. According to United States Postal Service data, nearly 10,000 New Yorkers have changed their address to one in Connecticut since the pandemic began.

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