By zedcoalam If you are thinking about buying or selling a home, it is important to do some market research first. Knowing the market trends can help you decide when and how to invest in real estate. Here are some of the housing and mortgage trends expected to carry out in 2020.
1. Low Mortgage Rates
Mortgage rates are expected to stay low throughout 2020. We saw mortgage rates decrease in the second half of 2019 when they averaged around 4% APR. Many of the major players in the mortgage industry expect mortgage rates at the end of 2020 to be within .25% of what they were at the end of 2019.
2. Shortage of Supply will Continue
The housing market in 2019 was definitely a seller’s market. The demand for new homes is much higher than the supply.
According to Realtor.com’s 2020 forecast, “Inventory could reach a historic low as a steady flow of demand, especially for entry-level homes, and declining seller sentiment combine to keep a lid on sale transactions.
3. Higher Priced Homes Will Result in Less Sales
As the population continues to grow at an increasingly accelerated rate, there aren’t enough homes for young adults moving out on there own for the first time. Part of the problem is that a lot of the new homes that are being built are not in the price range that a first time home buyer can typically afford. This has resulted in an unfortunate situation for the upcoming generation. Most first-time homebuyers are having to wait longer and save more than in the past to be able to get into their first home.
According to the National Associate of Realtors, first time home buyers have accounted for 39% of home buyers on average since 1981. However, this percentage was down to 33% over the last two years. This trend is likely to continue in 2020 due to a lack of affordable homes.
4. Sellers Should Continue to See Multiple Offers
Bidding wars typically slow down in the fall and winter season as home sales tend to slow down around that time. This year should prove to be different from bidding wars starting back up in early spring and carrying out into the Fall. Inventory is low, but so are mortgage rates, which causes the demand to remain constant. With this shortage, we can expect to see the market continue to be an advantage seller in 2020.
5. The majority of Homeowners Will Not Look to Sell
Homeowners are moving less and less frequently as time goes on. According to Redfin, on average, homeowners have been in their homes for 13 years. This is much longer than the average in 2010 of eight years. What does this mean? People are becoming more and more comfortable with the current living situations. The National Association of Realtors has stated that people used to move every six to seven years. In 2019, the NRA found that the most common reason for selling a home was to move closer to family. This shows that people are not in any hurry to put themselves or their families through a drastic life change, such as changing homes.
6. Homeowners Will Hold on to Their Equity
American homeowners had more equity in 2019 than ever before. This is a result of a lot of people paying their mortgages on time and not pulling equity out of their homes for other expenses. It seems as though borrowers are more risk-averse ever since the housing crisis in 2008. In fact, cash-out refinances extracted only $20 billion in 2019, which was $60 billion less than in 2006, according to the Urban Institute.
The more you can learn about current housing market trends, the more successful you will be as you invest in and sell real estate. Hopefully, these predictions will help give you an idea of what to expect in 2020. If you are considering buying a home.
Dean Jones 
Fred McGill