Real estate

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a mild fluctuation in the Savannah, Ga., area real estate market, but many people are still inking closing contracts. At the same time. local industry leaders and agents are turning to technology to help them find their forever homes.

Many El Paso, Texas, homebuilders are opening model homes only for appointments, or in other ways limiting access to the homes, which for years have been their best selling tool. Home construction continues.

From the crossroads of America down to the bayou, here's a look at 12 housing markets where it's the most financially prudent to buy a home rather than rent, according to First American.

In the Philadelphia metropolitan area, new listings are down almost 43% from March 1 to April 5, when the number of new listings typically grows by roughly 52%, according to Zillow.

The Rhode Island Association of Realtors reports that single-family home sales in the state actually rose slightly year-after-year in March, despite the onset of the coronavirus crisis.

With the onset of the pandemic, real estate agents say deals that were in the works are encountering all types of problems, creating havoc in the market as buyers try to back out of contracts.

Prices on average are expected to grow at nearly half the rate they were expected to rise before the pandemic hit, according to Veros Real Estate Solutions.

The government lock-down on real estate sales loosened last week — agents and other professionals were deemed essential workers — but strict Bay Area guidelines banned open houses and close contact.

New York's Real estate agents, home inspectors and residential appraisers are now considered "essential employees," according to the Empire State Development agency.

Real estate listings are drying up, open houses have been canceled, and buyers are staying home. One more pillar of the Canadian economy is under threat from the coronavirus pandemic.

As social distancing related to the coronavirus complicates work for appraisers, real estate agents and construction lenders, professionals turn to technology and, in some cases, ask consumers to pitch in.

The real estate industry, struggling with coronavirus-linked limitations, got a boost with its sales business reclassified as an "essential" industry.

Residential estate brokers and agents are scrambling to determine what Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker's emergency order means for their industry.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little's order telling Idahoans to stay home for 21 days is likely to create havoc for the state's real estate industry.

Canadians' interest in searching for houses online is waning amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to real estate portal Point2 Homes.

Minnesota Realtors is calling for a halt to all real estate open houses statewide, and they've asked the NorthstarMLS to disable the "open house" feature in its online home listing database.

Realtors are taking advantage of nearly every type of modern technology to maintain the embers of the real estate market.

The coronavirus pandemic is threatening to put a damper on the Marin County, Calif., real estate market as it enters its normally busy spring season, with the nation facing economic uncertainty and a "shelter in place" order forcing the cancellation of many house events.

The real estate market, particularly in the so-called luxury tier, has been struggling for years.

The coronavirus pandemic has created confusion, delays and uncertainty in housing projects around the Bay Area, despite a crushing need for new homes from an industry deemed essential to work through the regional lock-down.