Is it a Smart or Dumb Decision to Buy a New House During Pandemic?

One year had passed already since the global pandemic happened and until now, I don’t know when this will end. This COVID19 has dramatically affected our everyday lives and it gradually changes our perspective. We’ve been stuck at home 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, our humble abode became a school and workplace at the same time. 

We are living in our townhouse for the past decade and I can definitely say, we are completely satisfied with our present residence. We are just a family of three so we don’t need a huge one. Reminiscing our normal lives, my husband used to travel a lot because of work and my son spent more hours in school so, during the day, the house feels empty. I thought that our tiny house is enough for us so buying a new property is not a priority.

We have no idea that this virus will change the way we see our own home. After being confined in the four corners of our shelter for the last several months, it made us rethink the kind of house that we want to live in. All of a sudden we realized that we need a bigger space and we want to have our own quiet corner for school and work.

Thinking back on the preCOVID19 days, we just wanted to renovate some part of our house but during the pandemic, we let go of the idea of home improvement. Instead of renovating the house, we started dreaming of a new dwelling place. It is easy to say “we want to buy a new house” but with our present situation right now, we had second thoughts. 

We even read one article in Bloomberg “A Pandemic is a Terrible Time to Buy Real Estate” so there are so many questions in our head. Is this the best time for house-hunting? Is it a wise decision to invest in property during a global pandemic? Can we afford to buy a new home? Should we wait after the pandemic? 

Investing in a new property is never an easy decision especially now that we are dealing with uncertainties. We know that foods, drinks, health, and job security are more important than buying a property but our desire to move to a more comfortable home is also important. We weigh the pros and cons, we think the worst-case scenarios and we used a mortgage calculator to make sure that we can afford to pay for our property. 

After contemplating for one month, we finally bit the bullet and we invested in a new property last year. Buying a new house in the midst of a global pandemic is either a smart or dumb decision that we’ve made but there is no harm in taking a risk again. Thirteen years ago, during the financial crisis, we also invested in our present home. During that time, it was a big risk because I just recently resigned from my work, and living on a single income while paying rent and mortgage is a challenge. But looking back, it was the best decision that we made because we are no longer renting. 

Now, we took a big leap and bought a new property. You may be wondering why we did it? Well, after being trapped in our home for several months, we accepted the fact that COVID19 is not an easy battle. And because of this, I’m pretty sure that we need to stay in our house for the next few months. No travel trips for us but we can use the money to invest in property while the amortization rate is low. Even after the pandemic, we already prepared ourselves that we may not have any travel trips because we have our new priority. Nevertheless, we can’t wait to move to a bigger house so we have more space to move around even there is a lockdown. 

"Don't wait to buy real estate, buy real estate and wait" T. Harv Eker

Read: Things to Consider When Buying Your First Home