Hope Leitner, Realtor®, CRS

  Foreclosures Housing Market Updates There’s been a lot of recession talk over the past couple of years. And that may leave you worried we’re headed for a repeat of what we saw back in 2008. Here’s a look at the latest expert projections to show you why that isn’t going to happen.   According  to Jacob Channel, Senior Economist at  LendingTree , the economy’s pretty strong: “At least right now, the fundamentals of the economy, despite some hiccups, are doing pretty good. While things are far from perfect,  the economy is probably doing better than people want to give it credit for .” That might be why a  recent survey  from the  Wall Street Journal  shows only 39% of economists think there’ll be a recession in the next year. That’s way down from 61% projecting a recession just one year ago ( see graph below ): Most experts believe there won’t be a recession in the next 12 months. One reason why is the current unemployment rate. Let’s compare where we are now with historical data from 

January 23, 2024 For Buyers Pricing First Time Home Buyers Housing Market Updates Even though home prices are going up nationally, some people are still worried they might come down. In fact, a recent  survey  from  Fannie Mae  found that 24% of people think home prices will actually decline over the next 12 months. That means almost one out of every four people are dealing with that fear, and you might be, too. To help ease that concern, here's what experts forecast will happen with prices this year. Experts Project a Modest Increase Check out the latest  home price  forecasts from eight different sources ( see graph below ): The blue bar on the left means, on average,  experts  think  home prices  will go up over 2% by the end of this year – not down. Prices  aren’t likely to depreciate in 2024 because  inventory  is still tight and lower  mortgage rates  are leading to strong  buyer demand . Those two factors will keep pushing  prices  up as the year goes on. As Selma Hepp, Chie