Realtor.com updates housing forecast

Realtor.com has just published its mid-year national housing and economic forecast update. Here are the key takeaways:
  • Mortgage rates will average 6.7% through the year and hit 6.3% by year’s end
  • Existing-home median sales price appreciation will jump +4.6%
  • Existing-home sales will edge up +0.8% to reach 4.1 million sales
  • Existing-home sale inventory will jump +14.5%
  • Single-family home housing starts will increase +10.5% to reach 1 million homes
  • Homeownership rate will hit 65.5%
  • Rent change will be -0.5%
Our take
Our biggest takeaway here–even in this slow year, home sale prices are expected to increase by +4.6%. Use that stat when presenting your listing pitches to owners. Explain that they are sitting on a valuable commodity. Also, we should mention that election years typically bring volatility to markets, including the housing market. However, we don’t anticipate this year’s election to bring major surprises that would interrupt the trends forecast above for the rest of 2024.