The real estate market is coming off a summer boom, though agents like Matt Lerner is still riding the wave.

“It’s definitely quieter than it was this summer, this summer was insanity,” Lerner said, then adding, “I’ll go out and I’ll do six appointments in a day, I’ll do 20 in a week.”

It’s part of the reason why Lerner, who says who meets up to 100 prospective renters a week, likes to take at-home COVID-19 tests on a regular basis. He says it gives him peace of mind.

Pharmacy owner Morry Kubashky says it’s an industry-wide, nationwide problem.

“Every day we probably get four or five customers, patients come in and ask for it, and unfortunately we don’t have it. We cannot get it,” Kubashky said. “Getting the at-home COVID tests are virtually impossible.”

In several European countries, however, antigen tests are widely available. 

In hopes of making that the case here, too, the White House bought a billions dollars worth of at-home tests last week, a move officially say with quadruple the number available in the U.S. by December.

With more people getting back into the swing of their day-to-day lives, Kubashky says demand is greater than ever.

“People want to go to functions, whether it's even weddings or family gatherings, you have Thanksgiving coming up,  you have Christmas coming,” Kubashky said.

Or, in Lerner’s case, for going to work.

After sending the day searching with Lerner, we eventually did find a testing kit.

With a quick swab, a quick 15-minute wait and a negative result, Lerner got back to work.

“I think that having peace of mind and knowing that I’m negative every morning, or every other morning, or once a week, is half the battle with some of this,” Lerner explained.