Housing Forecast Brightons
Realtor.com® on Tuesday released a revised 2019 housing forecast, which shows the outlook for the real estate market this year is somewhat stronger than originally forecasted.
Based on a shift in the economic outlook and slower pace of monetary tightening, the online real estate destination is now expecting lower mortgage rates of 4.5% by the end of the year, higher home price growth of near 3% and stronger home sales.
Falling mortgage rates have given home buyers more purchasing power to balance rising home prices, but that in turn is allowing for more home price growth than was expected in November. As a result, realtor.com® now anticipates home prices in 2019 to be 2.9% higher than in 2018 -- a 0.7% increase over its original prediction. Although home prices are currently growing at 3.5 to 4.0% year-over-year, the rate of growth is far slower than the past few years of 5 to 7% growth, indicating prices are softening.
After a 10-year high in 2017, home sales slipped in 2018 and are on track to end 2019 with 5.3 million homes sold, essentially flat with 2018. Initially, realtor.com® projected home sales to slip 2% further in 2019, but the combination of lower mortgages rates and an influx of inventory have spurred sales.
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