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.

We’ll just say it: this has been a weird year.

Even that doesn’t seem to touch the reality we’ve all been dealing with for the past nine months. The year began with predictions of a housing market crash and, as we’ve seen, despite the economic impact of the coronavirus, the real estate market has been surprisingly tenacious where single-family housing is concerned.

If you look at any of the headlines about the real estate market, you will encounter a wide variety of predictions and evaluations. Right now, we’re seeing many remarks on the unexpected tenacity and strength of U.S. real estate in the face of a global pandemic. And it’s true — in many cases, the real estate market has not only weathered the economic fallout, but it has seen increased demand and growing equity.

Back in March, most of us probably expected pandemic fears to wane after a few weeks. At the most, we thought the summer would bring an end to things and we’d return to business-as-usual. Unfortunately, we have not seen this to be true. Talk of a “new normal” seems more and more like reality. It’s likely that COVID-19 will forever change how society functions!

If you’re like most people in the world right now, you’re likely fatigued by an overwhelming amount of negative news, doomsaying, constant stress, and fear. As we move through the pandemic — for many of us, the third month of stay-at-home orders and social distancing — it’s important to analyze the market as it is versus worrying about what it will become.

Real estate experts far and wide seem yet to have come to a real consensus about what we can expect from the real estate market as we start a new decade in 2020. It’s true, there are several conflicting factors that could see the real estate market go either way. It’s a mixed bag on whether we’ll see a boom or a bust, if 2020 will be more of the same or if we’ll see some radical shifts in the market.

As a real estate investor, you are acutely aware of the ebb and flow of the real estate market whether you realize it or not. While you may not study the market specifically, you do understand sentiments and trajectory.  Most of us have a sense for when a market is moving in the right direction and when it isn’t — though we don’t always know the words to describe it or what the real factors are in determining the health of a market.

There’s no shortage of hype in the real estate investing world. We know that just by looking at headlines! Everyone is always searching for the next big market, the hot new trend, and the strategy that will make money fast.

These days it seems as though we can never get a definite answer on the state of the real estate market. One day we're hearing great news and the next people make it sound as if the sky is falling. When it comes to real estate, it is important to remember that the market will always be shifting and fluctuating. There are so many complex contributing factors to the health and balance of the real estate market on the whole that predicting these changes is incredibly difficult, if not outright impossible.

As real estate investors, keeping abreast of our various investment markets is absolutely essential. Even as passive investors who trust their turnkey providers and management teams to know their markets inside and out, there are great benefits to knowing the markets in which you invest.