No one may be sure of how many St. Cloud homeowners chose to deal with their year-end stir-craziness by surfing the web last weekend, but for those who did so by Googling “top events of 2020,” there wasn’t much doubt about what finished as Number One:

The pandemic, of course.

Second place tended to be a jump ball between either the Presidential election or impeachment, after which a dozen other noteworthy occurrences vied for recognition. Among others, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s resignation from the Royal Family competed with the Australian and California wildfires, the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics, a stock market crash (although Wall Street’s swift recovery made that one a weak contender), murder hornets, etc.

What did not appear on many top event lists was something that was hard to summarize as a single topic: the widespread financial turmoil triggered by the pandemic. Those ripples included what some analysts called a decade-skipping leap forward into the reality of virtual workplaces. That had been forecast for a while, but almost overnight, it became a reality for millions of workers and their bosses. By April 7, roughly 95% of Americans were under some form of lockdown—which instantly made solving the details of working from home very real for millions. For better or worse, by year’s end, Forbes was calling 2020 the “Year of the Remote Workforce.”

The resulting impacts on St. Cloud homeowners were varied. Sellers found that many potential house hunters were no longer constrained by commuting distance requirements. And for many of the buyers, home office space became a new ‘must-have’ feature. Disruptions in academic schedules made the necessity for homeschooling a pressing reality, with varying impacts on how parents coped—and how they evaluated school districts.

But one real-world financial fact was felt coast to coast. Worries about U.S. residential markets quickly gave way—until finally, as the President of CoreLogic reported, “The housing market has remained a strong pillar in an otherwise tumultuous economic year.” By the third quarter, his company reported that the average homeowner had gained $17,000 in equity, year-over-year. That added up to a national homeowner equity increase of $1 trillion in a single year—a welcome note amid an otherwise brow-wrinkling year.

As 2021 begins, most prognosticators expect a continuation of steady demand and mounting home values. If your own year could include any St. Cloud homeownership initiatives, I hope you will give me a call!

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