COVID led to dramatic changes in my life, as well as the world, many of which remain today.
I started working from home for the first time during COVID, in early 2020. I’ve remained 100% working from home for the >4 years since then. My employer no longer rents the physical office where I used to go in for work (does have physical offices elsewhere in region). This had led to changes in work hours, how meetings are handled, how interactions are handled with colleagues in other companies, etc.
I consider inflation and increased fed rate to combat inflation as an indirect carryover from COVID. 30-year mortgage rates are the highest they have been since before the global financial crisis in 2007-08, and the market expects rates to remain high for the foreseeable future. This has led to changes in my investment strategy, portfolio weightings of fixed income vs stocks, desirability of leveraged investments, etc.
With the combination of above – more people working from home and people being reluctant to sell and lose their financial arbitrage 2-3% mortgage, home prices/values skyrocketed and remain high by historical standards. I live in VHCOL of area of CA. With home prices and home replacement values increasing far more rapidly than insurance rates can increase under prop 103, many insurers are leaving the state and/or limiting new policies. The insurer I had pre-COVID has left the state. My home insurance is double what I paid 5-years ago, yet I feel fortunate. A good portion of my neighbors are in far worse positions.
Car prices shot up soon after COVID due to supply chain disruptions. There was a point at which it was common for low mileage used cars to be more expensive than MSRP for new cars, which partially related to new cars not being available. Cars are still high priced by historical standards, but seem to have stabilized by a good amount this year. I bought a car a few weeks ago. I observed that inflation adjusted prices still remain high by historical standard, even though there are plenty of cars at area dealers. Some dealerships in my area have too many cars to fit in their lot.
With the elevated prices, I also was able to get a good deal on my old car by historical standards. My old car was in poor condition, with a myriad of mechanical and cosmetic issues. Any mechanic would quickly find that it would cost far more to fix than value of car. Any person driving the car would notice the issues on day 1. The best online offer I got was from Carvana (still remains popular post COVID), which also beat local dealers and KBB by a good margin. On the day before Carvana was scheduled to pick up my car, a local dealer offered to beat Carvana’s price, so I sold to them instead.
I could continue and list many other things that remain changed. I consider COVID to be one of the most world altering events of this generation.