Your down payment fund was safely in cash. You'd planned, perhaps for years, for the 2020 home-buying season. Then, just as the perfect home hit the market, the coronavirus turned the world on its head.

Should you go through with the purchase?

Whatever it is that is happening now hasn't hit the housing market yet, but it probably will. Stocks have fallen, entire industries are putting themselves on pause, and small businesses are taking hits.

There is so much we don't know about what the next few months will bring.

But the economic impact of the virus will be far-reaching, affecting everything from employment rates to the willingness of buyers and agents to attend open houses, and whether sellers pull listings. Many people will have less money, and they may have less access to it as well.

All that may make it seem like an odd moment to consider buying a house. But there will be many people who are confident about their job security - or are moving for job offers that haven't evaporated. There will be others making room for new family members or looking to be closer to older ones who may need care.

As of last month, Ms Elaine Cicora and her husband's year looked something like this: Sell their Macedonia, Ohio, home later this spring; buy a newly built one not far away and move in August; withdraw money from retirement accounts in an orderly fashion if and when they need to; and fly to Austin this month to march their eldest daughter down the aisle.

Now, they're putting their house on the market sooner in the hopes that they can catch buyers before they have second thoughts; asking their builder about disrupted supply chains while considering what to do about the next deposit on that place; considering whether they ought to call a halt to both buying and selling; eyeing the markets with growing concern; and thinking about cancelling their Texas plans.

Many real estate shoppers were trying to weigh multiple moving pieces back in late 2008, too. That crisis was different - the S&P 500 would lose half its value from its peak, and home prices cratered, too.

That's not the case this time. And what has happened since 2008 should provide us some comfort right now.

That December, I talked to three couples who had taken the plunge and suggested that five to 10 years later, we would probably look back on that period as an incredible buying opportunity.

How do those couples see things now? Two are glad they made the leap when things were looking very grim, and the third did not comment - but their Los Angeles neighbourhood has seen home values double or more during those dozen years.

Ms Jaime Proman and her husband Michael bought a house in Minneapolis in 2008, moving from a 450 sq ft studio apartment in New York City. He grew up in the Twin Cities, and they said at the time that it felt as if they were making a permanent move.

Minnesota is still home, although they didn't stay in the house they bought. When they and their expanding family traded up in 2013, their house had actually fallen in value. Had they waited a bit longer to move, they would have broken even, thanks to rising real estate values there - but their new, bigger house would have cost that much more as well.

Many people who are considering buying now may be swayed by other benefits of home ownership: control and certainty. You get a stable monthly housing payment - and rock-bottom interest rates might mean you never even have to refinance - plus the comfort of knowing the place is yours as long as you make that payment.

That certainty has proven crucial for another Minneapolis couple, Mr Lacey Mamak and Ms Alison Nowak. They scraped together a 3 per cent down payment in 2008 to buy an 800 sq ft house, and there they have stayed. They now have a mortgage payment of around US$1,100 (S$1,600).

Back then, Mr Mamak was in an adjunct position but is now an academic librarian on the tenure track. Ms Nowak is an adjunct instructor who also does design and communications work.

Rents in the area have risen so much that they believe they would have been priced out of town by now - or forced into different lines of work - if they had not bought.

Upon reflection this past week, they were intensely dialled into the emotional resonance of home ownership. First, there was gratitude for the fact that their fixed costs enable them to do work they love. Then, there was empathy for people who need or want to move and are scared - this time for their health as much as their finances - and thus find themselves at the crossroads that the two of them were at 12 years ago.

"People tend to think of buying a house as a sign of being an adult, and that if you can't afford it, you're somehow not an adult," Mr Mamak said. "But there are so many other factors and forces now, and it has nothing to do with your personal worth or how grown up you are."

NYTIMES