The Real Estate Roller Coaster: A Look at 2021’s Ups, Downs and Loopy Loops
• With an influx of buyers and a drought of inventory, house prices climbed Mt. Everest in 2021 and planted their flag at the top!
• Joe’s House Flippin’ Pancakes (a place where you can buy a house and enjoy a short stack) reports they saw an unprecedented 20% increase in customers eating blueberry pancakes – and buying homes!
• Commercial real estate, hit hard by the pandemic in 2020, started to show signs of recovery – only to encounter another setback in late 2021 due to continued remote work and the Omicron variant.
• Realtors, looking as stressed as ties on a windy day, learned to adapt to the changing market conditions with new strategies like virtual tours and curbside closings.
• In the mix of everything, some first-time buyers were forced to Camp OutDespair, waiting for prices to fall or get out of the soup line altogether, opting to join the hip wave of renters instead.
• Amidst the business world, merging companies headlined the year – they were seen swapping vows for better or worse, till monopoly claims do they part.
• Startups no longer deemed themselves as the babies of the business world. Instead, they levitated to teenage rebellion status with skyrocketing funding, growth, and quite melodramatic IPO releases.
• Crypto-related real estate transactions tested the waters this year, acting as curious cats in the corners of the conventional market box.
The Market Comedy Show
Alrighty then, let’s delve into this real estate mayhem, shall we? Houses in 2021 behaved like overeager jack-in-the-boxes, popping out with asking prices that seemed to knock buyers right in the noggin. Hey, on the bright side, as prices soared high, at least we got to see Realtors in astronaut gear!
A shout out to our versatile and adaptive realtors! They made lemonade out of pandemic lemons by going digital and providing virtual home tours, making it so much easier to see your dream mansion while lounging in PJs eating cereal.
The Business Meeting Circus
In the business ballroom, companies were found waltzing in each other’s arms, singing sweet whispers of mergers and acquisitions, making businesses seem like a version of ‘The Bachelor.’ We also saw our start-ups, no longer the timid freshmen on campus, stepping up their game with fluctuating growth, significant funding injections, and unapologetically dramatic IPO releases. Start-ups? More like ‘Swift-ups,’ am I right?
Throughout the pandemonium, crypto-real estate investments bobbed up and down, figuring out if they could swim or not. I mean come on, doesn’t ‘Bitcoin Bungalow’ or ‘Ethereum Estates’ have a nice ring to it?
Hot Take
Now, for my “hot take”. Somebody drumroll, please! This year, the real estate space felt more like a blend of ‘The Wild West’ meets ‘Cirque Du Soleil’. Buyers braved the rodeo bull that was the housing market, saddling up regardless of bucking prices. For first-timers though, it felt more like being stuck on the world’s slowest merry-go-round, watching the brass ring of homeownership just out of reach.
On the bright side, businesses were merging like cheese and wine at a fancy party, and startups were flourishing like mushrooms after a rainstorm. But hey, let’s not forget – they still threw the odd tantrum that dazzled the audience (stock market, we’re looking at you). And oh! If you have some Bitcoins tucked away, you might want to consider trading them for a nice beachfront property soon, the water’s fine!
Well, there you have it! Here’s to hoping that 2022 brings calmer seas for both the real estate world and the roller coaster of businesses. We sincerely wish for a drop in high altitude prices and a steady stream of mozzarella sticks for everyone!
Original article: https://www.inman.com/2023/12/06/how-are-you-preparing-your-real-estate-business-for-2024-pulse/