For 2020, The National Association of REALTORS® Chief Economist Lawrence Yun sees good news for home prices:

“National median home price growth is in no danger of falling due to inventory shortages and will rise by 4%,”

the long-term NAR economist predicts. He is also expecting the new home construction market sales to increase 10%. Yun and others would like to see home builders bring more affordable units to market to help ease shortages and slow price gains in that segment.

• Closed Sales increased 6.0 percent for Detached homes and 12.3 percent for Attached homes.
• Pending Sales increased 8.1 percent for Detached homes and 26.7 percent for Attached homes.
• The Median Sales Price was up 11.9 percent to $742,750 for Detached homes and 9.1 percent to $485,000 for Attached homes.
• Days on Market decreased 8.2 percent for Detached homes and 2.4 percent for Attached homes.
• Supply decreased 40.7 percent for Detached homes and 28.6 percent for Attached homes.

We start off the year with continued low interest rates, low unemployment, and rising rents nationally. These factors should encourage healthy buyer demand and sets us up for a strong start to the 2020 housing market and a lot of optimism for the coming spring market.