There are few things that haven’t been affected by the pandemic over the past two years. Almost everything about the way we live has changed in one way or the other. That, of course, is especially true of the housing market and economy. The pandemic upset the long-term trends of supply and demand and made it much more difficult to predict where markets might be headed in the weeks and months ahead. But now that we’re two years into it, the pandemic and its effects are a little more predictable and, according to the latest forecast from Fannie Mae’s Economic and Strategic Research Group, it may mean we’re beginning to settle into a new normal. “The ESR Group expects inflation to remain elevated in 2022, while still unknown is the extent to which structural shifts in the economy and housing market over the past two years become permanent,” the forecast reads. “However, the ESR Group foresees economic growth returning to more modest levels consistent with the long-run trend, while home sales and house price growth slow to a more sustainable pace.” In other words, while things are still somewhat unpredictable, there’s a growing expectation that the volatility of the past two years may finally be coming to an end. (source)
