The housing market is feeling the blows dealt by the coronavirus pandemic as millions of Americans are unemployed, much of the country remains at home, and lenders have made it more difficult to get a mortgage.
In the midst of all of this, house flipping giant, Opendoor has decided to resume house flipping operations. However, there is concern about how this will affect the housing market.
While Opendoor believes that they are in a position to help homeowners sell their properties without open houses or in-person closings, others express concerns about this type of large-scale flipping quickly sending the housing market into a full-blown crisis.
Opendoor is first restarting in Phoenix, then plans to reopen in another 20 markets over the next several months.
“The odds are stacked against Opendoor right now as the National Association of Realtors predicts a 14% crash in home sales this year. Real estate marketplace Zillow predicts that home prices in the U.S. could drop between 3% and 4% this year in a pessimistic scenario. But Zillow’s gloomy prediction seems to be laced with optimism as we see a financial crisis that’s worse than what we saw in 2008.”