Novel coronavirus not deterring homebuyers from Boston-area open houses so far

Disinfectants might be flying off Boston-area shelves as concern about novel coronavirus (COVID-19) spreads, but such concern about the outbreak has not yet dented prospective buyers’ appetite for open houses, brokers say.

“I haven’t seen an impact in terms of open house turnout or offers submitted,” Paul Campano, a vice president with Keller Williams, told Curbed Boston in an email. “A private residence is pretty low on the spectrum of where one may come into contact with the virus. With that said, out of an abundance of caution, I will wipe down the door handle a time or two with an antibacterial wipe as that is one point that most all visitors will touch.”

Other individual brokers and brokerages echoed these observations and approach.

“We try to avoid hand-shaking,” said Annette Given, president of Dardanian Homes Inc., which operates under the Charles Realty umbrella. She also that turnouts at the brokerage’s last few open houses have been normal, with no declines in attendance. “Where the property is located and price has always dictated the traffic.”

Paula Callanan, a Needham-based broker with Gibson Sotheby’s, asked open house attendees at an open house in that town this weekend to use hand sanitizer upon entering. Some attendees also wore booties. The concerns these changes highlighted didn’t damper attendance, Callanan said.

“The number of prospective buyers was still strong and a lot of people had small sanitizers in their pockets that they were using before they came in,” she said over email. “Buyers were relaxed and unconcerned. I was out with buyers in Malden and Medford, and homes had lots of buyers at each location. My personal concern is spreading germs asking people to sign in. Most locations had pens and sign-in sheets.”

Lisa May is another Gibson Sotheby’s broker. “We had a huge turnout over the weekend in Cambridge,” she said. “I certainly don’t want sellers to be anxious, but we did wipe down all the banisters, doorknobs, and light switches with disinfectant wipes after each open house. I began to worry that my sellers would be exposed given how many people had walked through their home.”

It looks, then, like the Boston-area housing market’s perennially high demand and generally static supply are helping it weather any novel coronavirus concerns as of the second week of March. Dozens of open houses are scheduled for throughout the region through Saturday, in including 12 in Boston proper, according to listings site Estately.

Historically low mortgage rates might be helping, too, to draw prospective buyers to Boston-area showings. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 3.29 percent last week, its lowest in its nearly 50-year history.

What's more, for all the runs on hand sanitizers and surgical masks, cases of novel coronavirus remain relatively rare in the commonwealth. The number of cases in Massachusetts stood at 28 as of Sunday night, according to the state—albeit that’s double the amount from the day before.

“If anything, I think this shows the strength of housing as an investment vehicle,” Keller Williams’ Campano said of the steady traffic at open houses.

He then drew an apparent parallel between the volatility that’s rocked the stock markets and the relative stability for now in the housing market. “All markets go through cycles, but you’ll never see a property decline 15 percent in a single day.”