By Staci Caplan
2020 President
Santa Barbara Association of REALTORS®
In the world of COVID-19 everything is constantly changing. In the real estate industry, major changes have occurred and which may likely have changed again by the time this article is published. Initially the federal government published a list of essential services during this time of restricted activity. It did not include real estate as an essential service.
Since then real estate has been added to the essential list. Governor Newsom’s stay-at-home order issued March 19 , as updated by the “ Advisory Memorandum on Identification of Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers During COVID-19 Response” from March 28, 2020, expressly includes residential and commercial real estate, including settlement services, as essential services recognized by the Department of Homeland Security as being necessary for the maintenance of America’s Critical Infrastructure.