Despite thoroughly grappling with the unexpected over the past year, the maxim “expect the unexpected” still resounds, possibly more loudly than ever. Recent occurrences simply reinforce that perspective. The past week (and the past few weeks) brought some genuinely surprising things because they fell outside the realm of reasonable expectations as well as some things that feel surprising because few people paid attention to them.
Genuinely unexpected
In the first camp, several occurrences really stand out. First, the widespread inclement weather and its impact on locations that typically experience milder winter, key among them Texas, served as a disruption last week. While undoubtedly troubling, JLL sees its impact as more transient than permanent, similar to what JLL observed with unusual winter weather patterns at times during the last decade. Though the weather stymied vaccination (critical to both the pandemic and the economy) during the past
