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2022 Housing Predictions

2021 was, to say the least, an interesting year in real estate. But as the year comes to a close, the big question on everyone’s mind is what does 2022 have in store?

2021 was, to say the least, an interesting year in real estate. But as the year comes to a close, the big question on everyone’s mind is what does 2022 have in store?

recent article from realtor.com outlined some of their economists’ predictions for the 2022 housing market, including:

  • Home prices will stay high—but price growth will slow down. Home prices rose high and fast in 2021, with realtor.com economists predicting a 12 percent rise for 2021. And while the realtor.com team predicts that home prices will stay high, they also see that growth slowing down—with price growth projected at a much slower rate of 2.9 percent for 2022.

  • Inventory challenges will continue. Low inventory proved a huge challenge for buyers in 2021; fewer homes on the market meant higher competition and higher prices—and it looks like it’s going to stay that way in 2022. The economists at realtor.com only expect the number of homes available to increase by 0.3 percent in the coming year.

  • Mortgage rates will rise. Mortgage rates have been hovering near all-time lows throughout the year, creating even more demand for housing. But buyers hoping to score the lowest possible rate on their mortgage should act fast; the economists at realtor.com predict mortgage rates to hit 3.6 percent by the end of 2022—a significant increase from 2021’s low of 2.65 percent.

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Header Photo by Isabela Kronemberger on Unsplash

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3 Ways Homebuyers Kill Their Own Real Estate Deals

Here are three ways homebuyers are defeating their own deals in today's market:

1. House hunting too long. As many as 60 percent of the homes for sale in some markets are short sales. Many other listings are bank-owned (also known as real estate owned or REO) properties, and those homes tend toward two extremes: terrible condition, or so nice at such a low price they receive multiple offers.

Even the nicer, nondistressed homes on the market can end up in and out of contract over and over again due to appraisal or other lending-related issues.

As a result, it is not at all bizarre to hear homebuyers today say they've been house hunting for a year, 18 months, even two or three years. When you house hunt that long, you become susceptible to house hunt fatigue, which causes irrationally extreme overbidding out of sheer exhaustion.

Alternatively, it can cause you to settle for whatever house you can get, even if it doesn't actually meet your needs -- then spend the next 10 years obsessively spending to upgrade, improve, repair and furnish the place to try to make it more like the home you actually wanted. 

Both of these outcomes negate and deactivate the bargain you stood to score. 

To avoid house hunting too long, it's uber-important to get and stay clear on the differences between what you want and what you need, and to work with a local real estate professional you trust.

Look to your agent to get and keep your expectations centered in reality, so you can make more strategic decisions throughout your entire house hunt, like house hunting in a price range where you're likely to both find homes that will work for your life and be successful in your efforts to obtain one.

2. Making lowball offers way too low. Overbidding seems like an obvious way to cancel out the bargain potential of your deal. But making excessively low offers -- offers sellers couldn't afford to take if they wanted to -- can have the very same result.

Buyers who think they can operate strictly on the basis of buyer's market dynamics -- without realizing that most sellers will need to make enough to pay off their mortgage or at least receive the fair market value for their home -- are cutting off their own noses to spite their faces, all in the name of trying to score an amazing deal. 

Note to "lowballers": If you don't actually secure the home, the superlow price you offered is no deal at all.

3. Freak-outs, stress, drama and mayhem. Once was, it was mostly the buyers uneducated about the homebuying process who tended to freak out and stress the most, especially at the top of the market. These were the folks who found themselves defeated at every turn by buyers who knew what they were up against and were prepared to make their best offer on their first offer.

Fast forward, and now the norm is for buyers to spend much more time reading up on what to expect, but the inundation of information can create brand new mindset management challenges.

Almost every buyer is stressed about whether they can qualify for a loan, and about buying into a down market. Some buyers try to apply national headlines about home prices being depressed to the superlocal dynamics of their neighborhood market.

This is unwise if you happen to be, for example, trying to buy a home in the boomtown real estate markets of Silicon Valley. Others go the opposite direction and deny that the basic truths about, say, buying a short-sale listing will actually apply to them (attention homebuyers: buying a short sale usually takes a long, long time). 

The emotional freak-outs that result from having your expectations shattered, sometimes brutally, in the course of buying a home often lead to panic-based and fear-based decisions, which can be costly in the short and long term. Additionally, the stress itself can take a toll on your ability to be productive at work, and can even impair your relationship with your mate, neither of which are worth any deal you think you stand to strike. 

Again, managing your expectations by working with a trusted broker or agent you feel comfortable relying on to understand the market in your neck of the woods and the type of transaction you want to pull off is essential to downgrading the role emotion plays in your real estate decision-making.

Call Laura Key today to schedule a one on one appointment to learn more!  310.866.8422 or email Laura.A.Key@gmail.com

Source: http://lowes.inman.com/newsletter/2012/02/02/news/175752 by Tara-Nicholle Nelson 

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