Where to buy a house in the United States amid COVID-19?

ABSTRACT

Home prices and rent prices in the USA have been growing steadily over the past decade. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has decimated entire sectors of the American economy, which makes the homebuying decision more intricate. We mapped multiple metrics to indicate the best place to buy a house amid COVID-19. For many counties in the central area of the USA, the price-to-rent ratio highly recommends people to buy a house, but the home prices have declined since the outbreak of COVID-19. The price-to-rent ratio and increasing home price suggest that people should not buy a home in big coastal cities under the current circumstances.