Welcome to 2023!
We are now starting the 3rd year of this new decade and we are definitely off to a great start.
Do you remember how we all started 2021 and 2022?
In lockdowns.
You see, we are so blessed to start 2023 with freedom.
As we navigated through the pandemic over the past 3 years, some new trends were created, like eating take out, working from home…
Now that we are in the post-pandemic era, people have figured out what they like and what they don’t like.
Some of the pandemic trends are actually reversing.
So today, we are going to discuss 4 reversing pandemic trends.
If you’re not subscribed to this channel, you should do that now because we are going to discuss many interesting topics like this one in 2023.
Reversing Trend #1: Virtual Reality
At one point, life was all about eating take outs at home and sitting in front of the computer.
You attended meetings, seminars, watched sports games, concerts, virtually.
You “travelled” to other cities through virtual tours.
Was that fun for you?
I think the message from the world is loud and clear.
People want to go out there and be able to enjoy things in real person.
Try making a same day reservation in any popular restaurants in downtown Toronto, good luck!
I was just trying to get tickets for a ballet performance over the holidays, no chance.
People are paying premium prices for airline tickets and hotels, fighting through airport chaos…
Whatever it takes, they just can’t wait to physically visit places.
This is quite the opposite of being avatars living in the virtual world.
Virtual reality is going to be the next big thing for us in this decade?
I highly doubt it.
Reversing Trend #2: Work from Home
This is an interesting one.
People can go enjoy movies, basketball games, dinner parties, weddings, pretty much everything in person.
But it is just a little too dangerous to go to the office.
It is more comfortable and convenient to work from home, I get it.
But it is at the expense of sacrificing team collaboration and company culture.
So we are starting to see different kinds of employee-employer struggles.
We have seen the Elon Musk approach where he ordered Tesla and SpaceX workers to work in-person at least 40 hours a week or quit.
He recently did the same to Twitter, if you do not show up in the office, resignation accepted.
We have all heard numerous stories where employees threatened to quit when they were asked to go back to the office.
That might have worked well over the past one and a half years because the labour market was tight and companies had a hard time finding suitable hires.
But things have changed.
Interest rates are so high now, companies have to watch their spendings and many are now in a hiring freeze.
It is probably going to stay that way until interest rates start coming down again.
So it won’t be as easy for people to just say I quit when they are being asked to work in the office.
And our federal government is taking the lead.
All government workers are mandated to return to the office 2-3 days a week by March 31.
Working from home will still always be a thing, but I think we can expect to see more and more people returning to the office in 2023.
Reversing Trend #3: Move to Suburbs
At the early stages of the pandemic, people escaped from the city and moved to the suburbs and cottage areas.
They wanted more space and they thought they wouldn’t need to commute to the office anymore.
Remember we saw a spike in demand for houses in the suburbs, and of course, crazy demand, crazy prices.
Now that the housing market is cooling down, which area saw the most declines?
The suburbs.
It is the general market, plus a loss of interest in the suburbs.
People are starting to miss the actions in the city centre and they need to get back to the offices.
If you haven’t been driving on the Don Valley, I can tell you that there’s traffic jam all the time, even at 11 pm at night.
People tend to congregate at city centres, it's fundamental that doesn’t change.
I’m glad you took my advice back then, survived through rent discounts and hold on to your downtown condos.
Reversing Trend #4: Online Shopping
When people were bored at home and they had nowhere to spend money, they bought a lot of things online, especially digital products, like TVs, game consoles, phones, tablets, all that stuff.
That’s why we saw booms in tech companies, online shopping platforms, shipping companies and so on.
Now this trend is reversing because people are going out to spend money on services instead, like eating out at restaurants, going on vacations…
They are definitely much less interested in buying products.
Tech companies and online businesses are seeing declines in their revenues.
You see, we are living in this era where things are constantly changing.
We must be flexible, keep learning and keep adapting.
When in doubt, stick to the fundamental principles.
I hope this video gave you some inspiration on how you want to start your 2023.
And if you haven’t watched my 3 predictions on inflation, interest rate and Toronto real estate prices in 2023, make sure you catch it at the link below.