The COVID-19 pandemic and extension of business closures made many Americans re-examine their living and working conditions. Such re-examinations affected housing markets in Pennsylvania, which have seen an increase in rural home purchases and a decrease in urban home purchases in 2020. The Center for Rural Pennsylvania recently published a report "Welcome to Rural Pennsylvania: COVID-19 and Residential Property Sales" which analyzed the impact of COVID-19 on residential property sales throughout Pennsylvania.
The Center for Rural Pennsylvania analyzed data from the Pennsylvania State Tax Equalization Board (STEB) and the residential property transfers from county assessor's offices in five counties: Monroe, Pike, Somerset, Susquehanna, and Wayne. The study findings showed an overall increase in rural home sales during the pandemic, however, some rural counties did have a decrease in sales during the pandemic, analysis of the 5 case study counties provided some evidence that new rural homebuyers came from counties with higher COVID rates and many of the residential purchases in rural PA after the 2020 Census survey deadline.
We will present the findings of the Center for Rural PA pertaining to how COVID-19 affected residential property sales in PA, which include out-of-state property owners, and the implications for those counties that experienced increased residential property sales. Eric Koopman will discuss how residential sales have increased in both number and value as has been seen in other areas of Eastern PA making relocation from metropolitan areas an attractive option. In Monroe County according to the recent Census and local school enrollment data, the resident population has actually decreased. The short-term rental market in Monroe County will also be discussed.