Editor’s note: All of HomeLight’s coronavirus information for buyers, sellers, and agents is available on our COVID-19 hub.You were browsing MLS listings and gearing up to begin your home search during the busy spring season. But then COVID-19 came sweeping across the nation, and your plans were suddenly put on hold. You still want to buy, but you’re wondering — is coronavirus going to impact real estate?The coronavirus pandemic has come with a lot of unknowns. One of them is how the fallout from the virus will affect the real estate market. Without a crystal ball, it’s impossible to say exactly what the coronavirus pandemic will do to real estate — but we can make some educated guesses based on what we know about economics and the market in general.

Here are the variables to watch that will determine how coronavirus impacts real estate down the road.

A HomeLight infographic explaining the effect of COVID-19 on college towns.

Buyer demand

We’ve seen a strong seller’s market over the past few years because there have been more buyers than homes for sale, but this might be changing.

Before the coronavirus hit, the percentage of agents characterizing their market as favoring sellers was already trending smaller as the year went on. In the first quarter of 2019, over 58% of agents said the market favored sellers. By the last quarter of 2019, that number was down to 48%. However, just before the virus hit, a poll of agents in February 2020 showed a whopping 77% of them classified the market as a seller’s market.

Of course, all that has changed now that the country has essentially shut down as we wait for the coronavirus to run its course.

Whether or not the market switches from a sellers’ market to a buyers’ market in the long term will likely be “based on the region,” says Anthony Sacco, an experienced real estate agent in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, who also has a background in finance.