Each year the Home Buying Institute analyzes current real estate market trends and conditions across the United States to offer a forecast for the upcoming year. This year there are lots of things to consider.

Below are the top five predictions for the 2021 real estate market.

1. Home prices will continue rising in most U.S. cities.
2. Housing market inventory will remain tight in 2021.
3. Home sales will remain steady going into next year.
4. Mortgage rates will hover around 3% next year.
5. It will be another good year for refinancing.

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Overall, Yun said he felt confident that home prices would maintain their stability throughout the pandemic, but he did not anticipate that prices would soar, “particularly in the second half of the year.”
What might the future hold? Yun predicts that home sales could be 20 percent higher in the third and fourth quarters compared to the prior year. Additionally, he sees home sales rising more than 5 percent, possibly 10 percent, in 2021, as a vaccine becomes available and possibly leads to faster job growth with still favorable mortgage rates, which should stay near 3 percent.

Buffini said that for the next three years, as interest rates stay low per the Federal Reserve’s guidance, real estate professionals should put in extra efforts and make sales, even buying the very assets they sell.

You can read the full article here.

There are fewer homes for sale in the U.S. today than ever recorded in data going back nearly 40 years.

“We are simply facing a housing shortage, a major housing shortage,” says Lawrence Yun, the chief economist at the National Association of Realtors which tracks home sales. “We need to build more homes. Supply is critical in the current environment.”

“Housing inventory shortages have pushed national home prices considerably higher,” says Joel Kan, vice president of economic forecasting for the Mortgage Bankers Association.

“We have been under producing for the past decade,” Yun says. “We need more construction.”

Yun had much more to say, see the full NPR article here. 

National Housing Market Data

According to Realtor.com’s Monthly Housing Market Trends Report:

• National inventory declined by 38% over the last year.
• Inventory of newly listing properties decline by 7% nationally.
• The national median listing price in October was $350,000, up 12% compared to last year.
• The typical home spent 53 days on the market this October which is 13 days less than last year, and one day less than last month.

Forbes reports,  “For the first time since 2011, homes sold faster in October than September and prices remained at their summer peak of $350,000.”
“Realtor.com®’s October housing data release reveals that sellers returned to the market, as the decline in newly listed properties substantially improved…While the national price growth rate continued to accelerate to historical highs, larger metros saw a slight softening, signalling a small reprieve for buyers in this active autumnal season.”