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In 2020, the world turned upside down--and so did the real estate market. But despite a global pandemic, strict lockdowns that briefly halted home showings, and a double-digit unemployment rate, the housing market did not crash in 2020. Instead, it soared, with a significant surge in home prices, home sales, and housing demand, bolstered by historically low mortgage rates, increased remote work and demand for space, and stimulus measures. Between March 2020 and June 2022, U.S. home prices jumped a staggering 43 percent. This phenomenon, which I call the pandemic housing boom, defied expectations.

The boom created a historic tailwind for almost the entire real estate sector, with the exception of office real estate, which saw vacancy rates spike as remote work took off. As offices emptied, workers built out their home offices. Many also moved to new locations farther from their company headquarters. The housing boom benefited nearly everyone­--mortgage lenders (with a refinancing boom), homebuilders (with demand outstripping capacity), materials suppliers (lumber prices were up by over 300 percent from prepandemic prices at the peak in 2021), and the multifamily and single-family rental markets.

Many of the fast-growing real estate companies on this year's Inc. 5000 adeptly cashed in on the housing market's tailwind during the pandemic housing boom. Consider Realty.com (No. 107) a portal for finding homes for sale, and Fromley (No. 250), a real estate developer in Idaho, where home prices rose 60 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from March 2020 to June 2022. There's also PadSplit (No. 1,162), a sort of Airbnb for long-term rentals of furnished rooms.

Some companies, like........

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