In a year that, for many, seemed like a reprise of 2020 — call it “2020 Light” or “Diet 2020” — 2021 still felt like the embodiment of anxiety.
Was the U.S. housing market, which soared after a brief pause at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, finally headed for a cataclysmic demise, or simply a slowdown, as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac predicted in April?
Were we all eventually headed for tiny homes, brought to us by Ikea, or worse, the streets, following the inevitable end to the polarizing nationwide ban on evictions in May?
Either way, the stories we gravitated to in 2021 revealed a lot about ourselves, our fears and our desires, or at least they did when they weren’t telling tales about wildly anticipated initial public offerings, abrupt executive shifts and simmering corporate feuds — not to mention the age old tug-of-war between Zillow and the nation’s real estate agents.
Take a walk down memory lane as Inman reveals the most-read stories of 2021.
Housing market concept image with graph on chart background,House with chart Credit: krisanapong detraphiphat and Getty Images
The economy is improving, homebuyer demand remains strong and COVID-era restrictions are easing, but mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac each predicted in April a slowdown in the housing market as mortgage originations decrease in 2021.
Fannie Mae revised its forecast down to predict mortgage originations will drop from 4.5 trillion in 2020 to just under 4 trillion…
