14: How will Coronavirus affect real estate? (From Epicenter)

Coronavirus and its Impact on the Real Estate Market - from the epicenter of the epidemic outbreak in Seattle, Washington.  Join Sean Reynolds, designated managing broker and owner of Summit Properties NW and certified real estate appraiser and owner of  Reynolds and Kline Appraisal.  

Here's what we will cover:
1.  How is the virus outbreak impacting the Seattle real estate market and national real estate market
2.  A look at the Chinese market and what we can learn there 
2.  The impact of the coronavirus on the economy and why the stock market is tanking 

I am shooting this podcast only 8.7 miles away from the epicenter of the coronavirus here in the United States which is the Life Care Center in Kirkland where the majority of deaths from the coronavirus have occurred in the US.  My office is in Bellevue and the next city to the north is Kirkland and that’s where the Life Care Center of Kirkland is located place.  Kirkland Signature Brand, yep, it's named after the same Kirkland.    

Coronavirus Death Toll as of 03/05/2020
3,254 deaths 3,254 people have died so far from the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak as of March 04, 2020, 23:16 GMT.
There are currently 95,179 confirmed cases in 84 countries and territories. The fatality rate is still being assessed.

Latest findings:
As of early March, the coronavirus outbreak had infected more than 95,000 people and killed more than 3,200 people globally, the majority of whom live in China, where the illness was first detected in December. More than 100 people in the United States have been diagnosed, including at least nine people who have died.

By comparison, influenza — known as the common flu — has infected as many as 45 million Americans since October and killed as many as 46,000, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So why all the worry and concern about the coronavirus?? It’s new and unfamiliar.  The flu is familiar.  We don’t like unfamiliar, it's scary and we tend to panic.  

1.  Growth could stagnate
The world's economy could grow at its slowest rate since 2009 this year due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The think tank has forecast growth of just 2.4% in 2020, down from 2.9% in November.
It also said that a "longer lasting and more intensive" outbreak could halve growth to 1.5% in 2020 as factories suspend their activity and workers stay at home to try to contain the virus.

2.  Global shares take a hit
Investors have been worried about the impact of the coronavirus as it spreads outside of China.

European and US stock markets have seen a slight uptick since then as it's hoped that countries will intervene to protect economies from the coronavirus outbreak.

The US central bank, for example, slashed interest rates in response to mounting concerns. The fed cut the federal fund rate by 50 basis points so a half-point rate cut.  That should, in theory, make borrowing cheaper and encourage spending to boost the economy.

The last week of February saw the worst performance for major stock markets since the 2008 financial crisis.

Factories slowing down
China makes up a third of manufacturing globally and is the world's largest exporter of goods.

But activity has decreased in the so-called "workshop of the world" as factories pause their operations to try to contain the spread of Covid-19.
Nasa said pollution-monitoring satellites had detected a significant drop in nitrogen dioxide over the country. Evidence suggests that's "at least partly" due to the economic slowdown caused by the outbreak.