Interest rates at 2%, 40 houses on market, 300 buyers, 15 plus offers on a home that has been for sale less than 24 hours, $50,000 over asking…!
Sound familiar? PTSD for me as a buyers agent in the hottest sellers market in American history.
That was our nationwide, “unprecedented” seller’s market just a year ago!
With interest rates taking a few major hikes in the last few months, it has definitely cooled off this hot market, as I am sure many have been hearing in the news and media that this is a gloomy time for anyone during this holiday season. However, not from actual real estate professionals’ perspectives.
Many have been patiently waiting for this big market crash to happen due to all this, but, according to NAR (the National Associate of Realtors) and an article by Caroline Heller in The Residential Specialist magazine, their prediction for 2023 is looking very merry and bright!
Sorry folks, no crash in their predictions! Many are stating that we are actually heading into a market much like the one we were in in 2019, “a normal, healthy market.” That sounds like a great market to buy a home in!
We are going to see probably another hike in interest rates in early 2023, with possibly low number of buyers buying to continue to try and stabilize. However, there is still a housing shortage, especially here in Cheyenne, so home prices are not predicted to go down too much, but more of a leveling off, with an increase in appreciation to start going up again in 2024. What does that mean? Buy a house in 2023! Sure, your interest rate will not be at 3%, but it will still be a historically low rate, you will not be forced to prepay that appreciation to win the bid, and you will actually have more than a hand full homes to choose from and be able to pick the perfect one for you and your needs at a great price.
Many are stating that we will most likely never see 1-3% interest rates ever again. I have a hard time with the word “never,” but I do know that having such low interest rates are not very good for our economy. The FEDs like to see 5-6%, which makes for the most stable economy, housing market, etc.
So, no, having a few more %s in interest rates are not going to crash our nations housing market. We are in a state of recovery right now, but we are heading for stability and health for the new year coming. And with everything we went through in 2020-2021, I think that is what we all want and need!
Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Years!