Great news. You’re going to want to hear about this. Home prices are expected to go up. Hi everyone. I’m Krista Mashore with Homes By Krista. Well the economy is strong, unemployment is low, and interest rates are increasing. So what is the market going to do? I always get asked that question. Don’t take it from me. Let’s look at what the experts are saying.

According to the Home Price Expectation Survey, which is made up of a nation wide panel of over 100 economists, real estate experts, and investment and market strategists which just came out. They are projecting an increase in home prices in 2018. In fact, 63% of them believe that we will see homes appreciating between 4.5% and 6% this year. The same group of experts are anticipating a cumulative house appreciation from now over the next five years to be similar between 3-5% through 2023.

Let’s do the math, and let’s see how this would effect a home owner. Let’s simplify this. If we took a home that was worth $250,000 right now, this would mean that by 2023 that home would’ve appreciated to just over $48,000. Remember that was just starting with a home that was originally worth $250,000. Think about it, if your home is originally right now worth $500,000, then that means that that same home would appreciate to just under $100,000 over the next five years. That’s good news isn’t it?

Now let’s talk about interest rates. Everyone keeps asking, are they going to go down? We do not see them coming down anytime soon. In fact, as you can see from this graph, we are anticipating interest rates to continue to go up and be above the 5% mark going into 2019.

So what does this all mean to you? How does it affect you? If you’re thinking about selling and you’re waiting for your house to appreciate, just remember that the higher your home increases in the price, the number of buyers who actually qualify goes down. Also keep in mind that in most cases if you’re waiting for your home to appreciate, so is the house that you’re actually going to be purchasing. So it’s kind of a wash if that makes sense.

So buyers, what does this mean to you? As interest rates go up your purchasing power actually decreases. So don’t wait. We want to get you on the home ownership bandwagon as soon as possible.

Thanks so much for watching everyone, and as always make it a great home selling and buying day. If you ever have any questions at all feel free to reach out, and I will see you next time.