How Coronavirus Will Affect Real Estate & Economy

Q: How will the coronavirus affect the economy and real estate? Carl, Scotch Plains, NJ.

A: It’s too early to tell the full extent of the effect on the economy and residential real estate but all signs point to a severe recession as bad or worse than the recession around the global financial crisis of 2008-2009. Mohamed El-Erian, who was CEO of the world’s biggest bond fund said recently that a global depression is possible. The problem is that there is no economic solution to this crisis–as long as millions of people are worrying about getting sick, you can’t fix the economy because there has been a breakdown of the mechanism of exchange upon which an economy depends. The key to getting over the hump is addressing the healthcare crisis through quarantining, social distancing and testing–when that happens and it eventually will, then the economy will begin to churn as people replace fear with optimism. Thanks for your question, Carl.

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