Homebuyers Can Look Forward to a Recovery Next Year

Will 2024 be the year of recovery for homebuyers and real estate agents after years of high prices and high interest rates? The National Association of Realtors predicts that will be the case, with sales volume of existing homes up 13.5% to 4.71 million and a 0.9% increase in home prices to a median of $389,500.

If the prediction is correct, the Southern states will see the most growth due to a rapid rise in work opportunities. The Midwest will also gain from being the most affordable of regions. NAR’s chief economist, Lawrence Yun, anticipates a 1.5% rise in national GDP and a 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaging 6.3% with further decreases to follow.

2024 should also see 1.48 million housing starts, of which 1.04 million will be single-family and 440,000 multifamily. “Housing inventory is expected to rise by around 30% as more sellers begin to list after delaying selling over the past two years. The selected top 10 U.S. markets will experience faster recovery in home sales,” Yun predicted.

Those markets include Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Dayton, Durham-Chapel Hill, Harrisburg, PA, Houston, Nashville, Philadelphia-New Jersey, Portland ME, and Washington, DC. These markets were identified based on how their pent-up housing demand in 2024 compared to national levels of certain economic indicators.

The indicators selected included returning buyers, lower price appreciation, affordability for renters and first-time buyers, more potential sellers, fewer remote workers, job growth, income growth, high-earner millennials moving in, and lower violent crime rates.