Prices of necessities driven up during height of pandemic persist

The global COVID-19 pandemic upended millions of lives in varied ways, from keeping many isolated to changing the way they work and recreate, but nothing had more of an impact on more people than the rising cost of necessities.

Prices of homes, cars, furniture and more large ticket items spiked during the health crisis and those higher prices persist due to higher interest rates.

“I was a little nervous,” said Troy Zimmerman, manager of Zimmerman Motors of Sunbury, regarding the pandemic’s onset in March 2020. “We had millions of dollars of inventory just sitting.”

For Aimee Buehner, a real estate agent with the Bowen Agency, the housing market “felt crazy. Prices accelerated and started to appreciate.”

Dave Moyer of Benjamin T. Moyer Furniture in Sunbury said a similar flurry of sale activity ensued at the beginning of the pandemic.

“It was a scenario we didn’t see coming,” Moyer said of the buying frenzy.

After months of skyrocketing prices caused by the labor shortage and slow supply chain, they said, prices in these markets are beginning to stabilize — somewhat.

Zimmerman said he was leery at the onset of the pandemic in late March 2020 when auto dealerships and other companies were ordered to close for two months.

But for more than a year after businesses were able to reopen in June 2020, the Sunbury dealership encountered customers from across the Valley and nation on a buying spree.

“We saw a flourish of business,” he said, with preowned vehicles flying off the lot and new car availability declining, with wait times rising from several weeks to several months.

The supply chain dwindled across the U.S. and dealerships found it difficult to keep vehicles in stock as prices continued to climb by up to 20 percent for pre-owned vehicles.

“We were selling to different states — Colorado, Florida. People were buying cars sight unseen,” said Zimmerman.

The company adapted to the new customer base by making more videos and photographs available online.

Customers who weren’t in the market for a new or used vehicle were still impacted by the lack of supplies, as the wait time for repairs rose from weeks to months.

As the pandemic has waned, Zimmerman said, the cost of used vehicles is starting to decline and new car inventory is returning to normal but new car prices remain high and consumers are expressing more interest in larger vehicles.

According to the Kelley Blue Book, the average cost of a new vehicle is $48,763, a more than $10,000 increase from prior to the pandemic.

Despite the higher prices and fewer buyers, Zimmerman said consumers are still in the market for a new vehicle.

“We’ve seen a shift of consumers going away from smaller vehicles, to SUVs and pickup trucks,” he said.

The uncertainty since 2020 has been “a rollercoaster. We’re not back to pre-pandemic (levels) but it is a shorter timeline for ordering a new vehicle,” Zimmerman said.

Buehner said forced remote work “accelerated” the rising cost in housing, particularly as people living in metropolitan areas realized they could relocate to areas with significantly less home prices and taxes and keep their jobs.

Housing prices not only rose, but buyers often gave full price — even above asking price — offers that included no home inspection or other conditions. Bidding wars were not uncommon.

“It was a real significant change in our business,” Buehner said.

In 2019, 1,826 homes were sold in Northumberland, Union, Snyder, Montour and Columbia counties at an average price of $155,000. In 2021, 1,970 homes were sold in those counties at an average selling price of $180,000. From the beginning of this year through the end of July, 902 homes were sold at an average cost of $190,000.

In the months since the pandemic has waned, Buehner said, the market has cooled with “slightly less competition” but interest rates and low inventory due to aging homeowners staying in their homes are keeping housing prices above normal.

“It’s a little bit easier (for buyers) and inspections are a thing again,” she said.

One year after Benjamin T. Moyer opened in 1935, it was struck by a flood in Sunbury and 75 years later the COVID-19 pandemic brought a new challenge.

As more U.S. residents found themselves working or studying from home, the furniture industry experienced a nearly 22 percent increase in sales between 2021 and 2022, but it also left many buyers waiting long periods for products.

“We didn’t see it coming,” said Benjamin T. Moyer owner David J. Moyer. “People wanted to get out and replace what they were sitting on.”

Reclining chairs were the store’s major sellers in the years following the pandemic.

The Christmas of2020, the store sold out of every reclining chair, Moyer said, adding the furniture company also had more sales of desks because “people wanted to move off of the kitchen table. In 2022, Benjamin T. Moyer sold a record number of mattresses, including high-end bedding. Despite the swift sales, the demand in product had many in the industry in panic mode.

“We had created a dilemma,” Moyer said of the shipping, supply and labor shortage issues that made it impossible to meet the demand for both indoor and outdoor furniture.

The benefit of the pandemic for Benjamin T. Moyer has been for the new customer base.

“We saw people we would never have seen,” he said, of consumers who were concerned they couldn’t afford the quality product offered at the store. “It taught people that we are not out of reach.”