The market hasn't stopped...

[Chris Martin]

I had a discussion with a non-investor person about real estate yesterday. They had an impression that the market had "stopped" because of recent events. My opinion, based on past 'event-based' impacts, was that real estate would continue on. I asked if he knew of "stoppages", which he didn't, but it left me with a small amount of doubt. I knew that most recording activity for real estate (mortgages, deeds) are electronically submitted, not paper based.  So I looked up end-of-month activity (shown below.) Things look normal to me. Most people close at or near month end, and there are generally many hundreds of deed recordings per day in that period. Those people under contract don't appear to have had issues closing and recording the transaction. 

While I concede that event-based issues today (and recently) may reduce future recording activity, the system certainly hasn't stopped.