The economic fallout caused by COVID-19 has changed how people view and manage their finances. Here are three lessons you can learn from the pandemic to prepare you for future crises.

U.S. new-home sales increased 1.5% to an annual rate of 740,000, the government said Friday. The figure equates to how many homes would be sold over a yearlong period of time if the same number were bought in each month based on the rate of sales in July. Compared to a year ago, sales were down 24%.The median forecast of economists polled by MarketWatch was that new home sales would come in at an annual rate of 720,000 for August. The median sales price of new houses sold in August was $390,900, rising slightly from the previous month to reach a new record high.

Existing-home sales dropped 2% to a seasonally-adjusted, annual rate of 5.88 million in August, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. Compared with August 2020, home sales were down 1.5%. Economists polled by MarketWatch had projected existing-home sales to come in at 5.87 million. The median sales price of an existing home was up nearly 15% year-over-year at $356,700.

U.S. home builders started construction on homes at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 1.62 million in August, representing a 3.9% increase from the previous month, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday. Compared with August 2020, housing starts were up 17.4%. The pace of permitting for new housing units also increased in August. Permitting for new homes occurred at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 1.73 million, up 6% from July and 13.5% from a year ago. With both housing starts and building permits, the gains recorded in August were driven by an uptick in multifamily construction activity. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected housing starts to occur at a pace of 1.55 million and building permits to come in at a pace of 1.62 million.

Seattle attorney Sylvia Hall worked off six figures in student debt on her path to financial independence. Now, she plans to use real estate to pay almost no taxes in her early retirement.

Economic growth slowed to a moderate pace in early July through August, according to the latest edition of the Federal Reserve's Beige Book that was released Wednesday. The central bank noted that safety concerns tied to the delta variant of COVID-19 prompted a pullback in dining out and travel, which weigh on the greater economy. Supply shortages, including limited inventories of automobiles and homes for sales, also contributed to the economy's retreat from its stronger pace of growth earlier this year. At the same time, businesses reported to the Fed that they were finding it easier to pass cost increases along to consumers via higher prices. The central bank noted that inflation was "steady at an elevated pace."

GameStop Corp. investors had their best day in five months on Tuesday despite no news released, as the video game retailer appears to have renewed its status as a meme stock. The stock soared 27.5% on the day, the biggest one-day gain since it rocketed 52.7% on March 25. There are no new press releases on the company's website, and the company did not file anything with the Securities and Exchange Commission in over a month. The stock also had its first double-digit percentage gain since it rose 10.2% on July 20, and it was the first time it rose more than 20% since it did so three times in March. Also catching the meme wave, shares of movie theater operator AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. jumped 20.3%, also on no apparent news released, as the shares notched the biggest gain since it rallied 24.5% on July 20. The rallies came on a day that the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.5% to top the 15,000 mark for the first time, and the S&P 500 rose 0.15% to another record close. Meanwhile, shares of commission-free trading platform Robinhood Markets Inc. , seen as a haven for the trading of meme stocks, rallied 9%.

Existing-home sales rose 2% in July from the month prior, the National Association of Realtors reported Monday. Sales occurred at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 5.99 million. Compared to July 2020, sales were up 1.5%. The total inventory of homes for sales rose 7.3% on a monthly basis, though it's still down significantly from a year ago.

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Home sellers suggest the housing market is "no longer heating up," as homes are staying on the market longer and the share of homes with a price drop rose for a fifteenth straight week, according to a new report from Redfin Corp. , a real estate brokerage services company. Home that sold were on the market for a median 17 days for the four-week period ending Aug. 8, that's down from 35 days a year ago, but up from a record low of 15 days in late June and July. The share of homes for sale that had price drops was 4.9%, up from 3.6% a year ago, and from 4.7% a week ago. The median home-sale price was $362,642, up 17% from a year ago, but down $362.750 last week, while 53% of homes old above list price, up from 30% a year ago but down from 54% last week. The median asking price for newly listed homes was $355,389, up 11% from a year ago but down from $358,475 last week. Redfin's report comes as the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF has gained 2.1% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has advanced 8.5%.