2015 Predictions

It’s the new year again, and with that new year, it is time to look forward to 2015 to speculate how the year will turn out. Realtor.com has just released their top predictions for the housing market in 2015, and building upon what we saw in 2014, housing is expected to continue to grow slowly but steadily as it has.

2014 was the first year we saw true recovery form the housing market crash we saw nearly a decade ago. With steady job growth and increases to the national GDP, the housing market saw its first steady pickup in years. Realtor.com expects that trend to grow throughout the next year.

The top predications for the housing market are centered around pre-existing home sales and the millennial generation. Households have shown improved growth and at higher pace than it has been the past few years. Researchers expect a massive move of the younger generations out of parents’ homes, college dorms, etc. into houses since they can no finally afford to (the majority of which they expect to go into the pre-existing homes.) Millennials might have money to now move out, but not build a home.

Home prices are expected to increase this year as well. Not as many homes are expected to be built. Rather, they will be bought. Lower inventories will push prices higher. Mortgage rates are expected to start going up mid-year and end the year at 5%. This, however, is expected to push overall home affordability down. Experts are hopeful a continued increase in worker wage will help offset that downside.

Overall, the housing market looks like it will still be in recovery mode for the majority of 2015. Still, the markets show vast improvement from where they were years ago. We will continue to monitor the markets and hopefully we can all make 2015 the year housing came back!