It didn't take long for white-collar professionals in 2020 to realize that expanded work-from-home policies meant they could buy real estate pretty much anywhere. Vacation markets went gangbusters. Exurbs got red-hot, as did so-called "Zoom towns" like Boise. Even big cities that were losing residents, like New York and San Francisco, got overheated as decoupling roommates created a spillover effect from the rental market into the housing market
That Pandemic Housing Boom coincided with a staggering 42% jump in U.S. home prices between March 2020 and June 2022. At least 60% of that appreciation, researchers at the Federal Reserve bank of San Francisco estimate, can be attributed to the elevated demand for "space" that occurred during the pandemic.
