The virus has changed some things, others hardly at all, and we must rely on hard data to look into the future. And consider our intestinal fortitude.
Public health data in Colorado has improved enough for the state to announce tentative openings. If we maintain social distance and protect our most vulnerable, the odds favor a smoldering virus, occasional breakouts, but a viable economy.
Re-opening could use some cheerleading, but it’s not easy to find balance in each of us between justifiable fears and the optimism necessary for a functioning economy.
The future... The housing shortage on our Front Range will be the same as it was before. Nothing in the virus will cause people to move away, or create more land to build on. Our low density may appeal more than ever. Worried buyers are in balance with worried sellers.
Also, no matter what, Colorado will still have top-five government and IT employment untouched by the virus. Retirement incomes still flow. Losses in financial investments are minor compared to 2008. Our resort areas may suffer next winter, but it’s early.
In the dozen years before the virus, mortgage applicants faced the toughest requirements on record. Colorado borrowers had the lowest delinquencies of any state.
As resilient as we were going into the pandemic, households depending on income from restaurants, lodging, retail — any close-distance work — have been hurt and will be slow to recover. Cruelty doubled, these tend to be lower income households, and renters. We should be prepared for rents to flatten or decline.
In the most hopeful aspect of this time, we control the recovery. Recovery is in our minds and spirits. I am among the vulnerable, aged 71, but I’ll be danged if I’ll let a parasitic strip of RNA hold me down.