Cold weather, but a HOT market!

New York, N.Y., 🗽 is a hell of a town — and in a post-COVID world 😃, home buyers may also see it as a hell of a bargain 🤑.

Since COVID-19 emerged as a major concern 🤔 in the first few months of 2020, the pandemic has upended the country’s housing market in many ways. At first, health
 👨‍⚕️ concerns fueled the digitization 👾 of the home-buying process, with some people opting to purchase homes sight unseen apart from virtual tours 🎥.

Already competitive 🏅, the frenzied real estate market in the U.S. 🇺🇸—an unforeseen outcome of the coronavirus pandemic—is getting even more cut throat 🗡.

Buyers are not only facing a dearth 📉 of inventory, as the number of homes for sale has dropped to an all-time low, but at the same time, prices 💲 have climbed 🧗 to an all-time high, according to a report 📄 Friday from Redfin.

Sharon Mather wanted to sell her house 🏠 in Long Beach, California, 🏝 but she was reluctant 😫 to pay the standard listing commission. During the intense seller’s market of 2020, she’s one of many homeowners rethinking 🤔 the wisdom 🧙‍♂️ of paying full freight🚛 to listing agents.

After shopping 🛒 around, Mather found a discount broker willing to market her house for a fee of just 1 percent, well below ⤵️ the 2.5 percent typically charged by listing agents.

Jimmy Buffett sure knows how to live the good life 🌺— and make a tidy profit 💰 while doing it. The "Margaritaville" 🍹 singer 🎤 has sold his jaw-dropping 😵 mansion in Palm Beach, Fla., for $6.9 million, Variety reports — significantly more than the $4.95 million he paid for the property in 2011.

Over the past 30 years, Maral Boyadjian has built up a family 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 real estate business consisting of eight homes 🏡 in Southern California that she and her husband 👩‍❤️‍👨 rent out.

"Some people spend their money on a bigger home or better car 🚘 or travel 🧳, but we live modestly," said Boyadjian. "Whatever money 💵 we can put together, we spend it on buying another single-family home 🏠 to rent."