What Does 2023 Have in Store for Everyone?

What a way to kick off the Year!  Something we have been thinking a great deal about is what 2023 will bring our industry.  We are also asking ourselves if the market is changing or did we forget that Pre-Pandemic end-of-year homes sales were always a slower time in our industry.  2021 was a banner year as we all know.  2022 was slower but made an ultra-marathon out of the marathon we all ran in 2021.    

So, what will 2023 bring?  January started off slow but was surprisingly better than most expected.  According to Trading Economics there were just over 420,000 homes sold in the U.S. in January of 2023.  While this is down significantly from January of 2022 it was a stronger month than predicted by many in late 2022.  January sales typically make up around 8% of the year’s sales which falls closely in line with the National Association of Realtors forecast of 4.78M.  Some perspective – 2022 sales volume was just over 5.2M nationwide.  So even with higher interest rates and inflation, the NAR is forecasting the industry will only be down 7% from 2022.  A far better feeling than where we were in 2008!

Is it a good time to buy?  There are pros and cons to the environment we are in, but most experts agree it is a better time to buy today than it will be in the future as historically home values consistently increase. By choosing to wait, you are missing out on the value of TIME. Time provides the opportunity to build equity and missing a year or two hoping that rates will change, or prices will fall is a gamble most experts say you should not take.  Yes, rates are higher than we are used to but still below the 40-year average.  If rates drop refinancing is always an option but if they stay level or increase the missed opportunity to build equity far out ways, the cost of the possibility of a lower interest rate.  The cons are that home values have increased in the past two years more than anyone could have imagined, and interest rates are higher than we are used to.  With all this being said housing inventory is still extremely low and we do not expect this statistic to change anytime soon.   What are our 2023 Housing market predictions?  We threw out our crystal ball in early 2020 and haven’t made predictions since. There are too many variables to weigh in on.  Our perspective is if our nation and industry remain calm and we do not allow fear to make decisions but logic we will be just fine.