The COVID-19 pandemic changed much of what we consider “normal” for the real estate market. The trends we saw were often unexpected and unprecedented. Now, almost five years later, where are we? The age-old debate between multifamily and single-family rentals continues to rage, but we’re still placing our bets on the latter.

2020 turned the real estate market as we know it on its head. While the fundamental rules of the business stayed the same, there’s no denying that the housing market reacted unpredictably. That’s not surprising in light of the uncharted territory of a global pandemic.

As 2021 came to a close, The New York Times published a piece entitled “The Pricey California Market? In 2021, It Got Pricier.”

We’re all long tired of the term “unprecedented” to describe the times in which we live. Even though the word has overstayed its welcome, it is still accurate.

As we near the last quarter of 2021, the real estate market seems no more certain than it did a year ago. Between a frenzy of buyer demand, the pandemic-spurred recession, and skyrocketing home prices, the state of the market seems like a hodgepodge of thrill and anxiety.

Over the past eight months, the nation has been turned upside down and shaken to its core. While in many respects we hope that these changes are temporary provisions to manage the COVID-19 pandemic, we have to be realistic: some changes aren’t going anywhere.

Recently, Motley Fool reported on the ways that COVID-19 may change real estate investment as we know it. None of these predictions surprise us, really. Here’s a quick rundown of what their analysis predicts:

As time passes, we’re seeing more encouraging information about the state of the real estate market versus the fearful predictions of a few months ago. That said, there’s no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has and will continue to impact real estate. For real estate investors, the question is less about whether to invest, but how one’s strategy needs to adjust to changing priorities and both economic and market conditions.