After a loss of sales during the spring, the Philadelphia suburban housing market is now in an extremely competitive state, writes Natalie Kostelni for The Philadelphia Business Journal.

Along with other non-essential businesses, Gov. Tom Wolf shut down all residential real estate sales in March.

Even so, home sales in Delaware County have managed to rise by 4.7 percent since July.

The pandemic is one factor driving this wave, with people in crowded urban areas looking for more space and empty nesters, who would otherwise be downsizing, now suddenly with their adult children back either taking college classes online or working from home.

House inventory is at an unprecedented low. Those who would normally be selling their houses are choosing to stay put because of the pandemic, among other reasons, resulting in buyers rushing to take what’s available to them as quickly as possible.

Because of low house inventory, the average price of a single-family home in Pennsylvania rose by 6.6 percent, now at $373,065.

A healthy stock market and interest rates, currently historically low, have also helped boost home sales and prices.

“We saw a strong June and the strong June emboldened a lot of people and it turned into a record July,” said Chris Finnegan, chief marketing officer at Bright MLS. “Our hypothesis is you’re going to see this better-late-than never market with a tail that goes into August and into the fall. It’s a really great story in Philadelphia and in the Greater Philadelphia region.”

Read more about the Philadelphia suburban housing market here.