Heather Anthony
I have been getting a lot of questions lately about how the changes in rates are going to affect the housing market, so I wanted to get something out to my family, friends and clients.
While we have not seen any significant rate cuts yet, most experts speculate that we will see them in 2024 (and expect rates hovering around the 6% mark at year end), with some pundits expecting as many as six cuts. With the current employment numbers and inflation rates, we will likely start to see movement as early as March.
We have already seen an uptick in buyers over January of 2023, but if the rates do come down, this will likely bring a wave of buyers entering the market. However, it is not expected for the available home inventory to increase at the same pace, since many homeowners are still locked into historically low mortgage rates.
A growing buyer pool chasing limited inventory will result in an increase in multiple-offer situations, which is likely to inflate sale prices.
It is not expected to reach the same frenzy level that we saw in 2021, but that is the same sort of model that we are looking at. This trend is likely to extend into the fall, when things tend to slow down right before a presidential election.
In short, we are expecting to see a strong market throughout the first three quarters of the year. For buyers willing to get in early, there is likely to be a great deal of opportunity in the next month or so until the rates drop — and there are always opportunities to refinance down the road.
Heather Anthony is a Realtor with ARC Realty Mountain Brook.
Submitted by Heather Anthony
