Marketwatch April 3, 2020

WEEK ONE? TWO? OR THREE? ….

While the world and North Georgia “shelters in place,” businesses have gone viral, our own firm is “open for business,”…. just from home, 320 different locations and 320 points of light. Norton, just this last week, saw new listings, substantial commercial closings, home sale contracts come together, and several residential rental tenants moving out while others move in. We are adapting in warp speed. The best quote that we have heard for these times is:

“Resources are less important than resourcefulness. (It’s not what you have, it’s what you do with what you have.)” 

The last four weeks have seen, what appears, to be seismic shifts in consumer work and recreation patterns. That’s true but it’s actually just an acceleration of natural trends that we’ve been seeing for the last 15 years.

The work at home concept is not new. It just went nuclear with demands for high-speed internet (now considered a required utility), quiet home-work places with functioning home fax, scanners and technology on-call help services.

• The front door delivery of Amazon, food boxes (Green Chef) and Uber Eats deliveries accelerated during the “shelter in place.”  Amazon Prime members are the winners with priority over newcomers to this delivery method. However, millions of converts will stay long after, as they now see the ease and benefit of front door delivery.
• Video conferencing was just a “thing” four weeks ago, Zoom and Go-to-Meetings were an occasional distance shortening service. Now, and in the future, it will be as common as conversations at the water cooler. Norton even held a viral “social hour” last night, virtual cocktails, virtual appetizers, and human interaction by touching each other by a flat-screen monitor and tablet…this will not go away.
• For those who use technology, they really use it. It makes people get up every day and go to work.

So, it’s important to understand these trends and lean into them.

OTHER RANDOM THOUGHTS 

• Most American businesses were not created to last this long without an income.
• A flattened curve flattens and prolongs the recovery.
• Job loss slows lower price point housing markets, the stock market slows the upper end.
• The fast-urban growth seen over the last 10 years should see a shift to suburban locations with strong medical service accessibility.
• Vodka sales are up 175% year over year.
• We have learned that tourism is the world’s largest industry…not agriculture.
• Real estate is not a typical consumable, it’s a life event. It was tight and it will continue to be tight.
• In quarantine, there is no place to spend money.
• ​Finally, we think 6 to 12 months from now American will have shaken this off and will have developed a NEW FRONTIER economy.

Stay Safe.

N THIS TOGETHER

Norton Marketwatch Editors

For More Information email info@gonorton.com