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Will home prices fall this spring? Here’s what some experts think
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As spring brings warmer weather and longer days, home buyers and sellers tend to come out of the woodwork. Those who’ve been thinking about buying all winter long, begin to shop around with lenders, lock in interest rates and hunt for their next dream houses. Meanwhile, sellers look for listing agents and begin to put their homes on the market.
But will spring 2024 be a good time to buy?
Interest rates are currently on the higher end. The Fed has been holding its rate at 5.33%, putting the average mortgage rate at close to 7% — a high not seen in years but a decrease from the near 8% it was in 2023. While Fed rate decreases are expected this year, many don’t think they’ll come until at least summer.
As for inflation and home prices, both have come down but are still elevated. The inflation rate has been fluctuating between 3% and 4%, while the median price of houses sold is sitting at $417,700 — down from $479,500 at the end 2022, according to the St. Louis Fed.
If you’re thinking of entering the housing market this spring but wondering what home prices will do, it helps to know what some experts predict. Below, we’ll break down what some are expecting for home prices this spring.
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What will happen to home prices this spring?
Home prices may drop in 2024, but the experts we spoke don’t think it’s going to happen by spring.
Home prices may stay the same
“In my opinion, we’re not going to see significantly lower prices by spring or for 2024 in general, but I also don’t think that prices will significantly increase either,” says Tate Kelly, a real estate broker at Coldwell Banker Warburg.
Kelly explains that the real estate market is going through a rebalancing phase: “Not many homes were up for grabs at the end of 2023, and sellers, as well as buyers, were hesitant mainly due to the high-interest rates creating a situation of low supply and low demand.”
He does, however, think we may see more inventory in 2024 if interest rates drop and sellers get tired of waiting.
“I think buyers and sellers are going to realize that mortgage rates are not going back to the 2019-2022 levels, and after waiting on the sidelines for the past year, they’ll jump back into the market once rates get to 6-6.5%,” said Kelly, “That theoretically should boost housing prices, but I don’t think that will be the case for 2024 simply because buyers don’t have the assets to go on a spending frenzy.”
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Home prices may increase
On the other hand, some experts are predicting price increases.
“Due to the combination of continued low inventory and improved consumer confidence from the anticipated decrease in rates, we are expecting, and already seeing, continued increase in prices,” says Greg Menell, the owner and managing broker of Pendulum Property Group.
“In terms of pricing, this week we had a home come to market for $2.5M that sold for $2.0M 16 months ago. It already has an accepted offer two days later,” Menell adds.
Dan Green, the CEO of Homebuyer.com, says spring’s housing market is the textbook economic concept of supply and demand.
“On one side, there’s loads of buyer demand jumping into the market with mortgage rates down and the economy going strong. On the other hand, you have homeowners who are reluctant to list their homes for sale. There’s an imbalance, and it’s leading home sale prices higher,” Green says.
“Home prices will continue to climb so long as buyers outweigh sellers, and there are millions of home buyers who’ve been waiting on the sidelines these last three years,” he adds.
Local real estate pricing trends can vary
While the predictions vary from home prices holding steady to increasing, none of the experts foresee them dropping by spring. However, keep in mind that trends in local markets can vary from the market at large. Prices may rise significantly in some locations and fall in others, depending on the local economic conditions.
“The pace at which home values rise this spring may slow in certain areas, but it’s like taking your foot off the gas in a car. You’re still moving forward and going fast,” Green says.
Learn more about home prices and mortgage rates here now.
Despite losing his boxing match to Jake Paul, Mike Tyson in a social media post Saturday said he had “no regrets” to getting “in ring one last time.”
The boxing legend was defeated by social media star Jake Paul in a highly anticipated fight on Friday night with an age difference of over three decades between the two contenders.
Netflix said Saturday that 60 million households worldwide tuned in to watch the match. The two fighters went eight full rounds, with each round two minutes long. Paul defeated Tyson by unanimous decision and the 27-year-old upset boxer and 58-year-old former heavyweight champion hugged afterward.
Paul was expected to earn about $40 million from the fight, and Tyson was expected to take around $20 million for the fight, according to DraftKings and other online reports.
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Tyson said on his social media that “this is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night.”
The fight almost didn’t happen after Tyson experienced an ulcer flare-up while on a plane in March. He addressed his illness Saturday, writing that he “almost died in June.” He said he had eight blood transfusions and “lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.”
Tyson retired from boxing in 2005 after a 20-year career. He last fought in a 2020 exhibition match against former four-division world champ Roy Jones Jr.
“To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you,” he said.
Alex Sundby and
contributed to this report.
In their final meeting, China’s leader Xi Jinping told U.S. President Biden that his nation was “ready to work with a new administration,” as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take over.
The two leaders gathered Saturday on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Mr. Biden was expected to urge Xi to dissuade North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine. It marked their first in-person meeting since they met in Northern California last November.
Without mentioning Trump’s name, Xi appeared to signal his concern that the incoming president’s protectionist rhetoric on the campaign trail could send the U.S.-China relationship into another valley.
“China is ready to work with a new U.S. administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-U.S. relationship for the benefit of the two peoples,” Xi said through an interpreter.
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Mr. Biden, meanwhile, spoke in broader brushstrokes about where the relationship has gone and reflected not just on the past four years, but on their long relationship.
“Over the past four years, China-U.S. relations have experienced ups and downs, but with the two of us at the helm, we have also engaged in fruitful dialogues and cooperation, and generally achieved stability,” he said.
Mr. Biden and Xi, with top aides surrounding them, gathered around a long rectangle of tables in an expansive conference room at Lima’s Defines Hotel and Conference Center.
There’s much uncertainty about what lies ahead in the U.S.-China relationship under Trump, who campaigned promising to levy 60% tariffs on Chinese imports.
Bobby Djavaheri, president of Los Angeles-based Yedi Houseware Appliances — which manufactures its products in China — told CBS News in an interview this week that such tariffs “would decimate our business, but not only our business. It would decimate all small businesses that rely on importing.”
Trump has also proposed revoking China’s Most Favored Nation trade status, phasing out all imports of essential goods from China and banning China from buying U.S. farmland.
Already, many American companies, including Nike and eyewear retailer Warby Parker, have been diversifying their sourcing away from China. Shoe brand Steve Madden says it plans to cut imports from China by as much as 45% next year.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden administration officials will advise the Trump team that managing the intense competition with Beijing will likely be the most significant foreign policy challenge they will face.
It’s a big moment for Mr. Biden as he wraps up more than 50 years in politics. He saw his relationship with Xi as among the most consequential on the international stage and put much effort into cultivating that relationship.
Mr. Biden and Xi first got to know each other on travels across the U.S. and China when both were vice presidents, interactions that both have said left a lasting impression.
“For over a decade, you and I have spent many hours together, both here and in China and in between. And I think we’ve spent a long time dealing with these issues,” Mr. Biden said Saturday.
But the last four years have presented a steady stream of difficult moments.
The FBI this week offered new details of a federal investigation into Chinese government efforts to hack into U.S. telecommunications networks. The initial findings have revealed a “broad and significant” cyberespionage campaign aimed at stealing information from Americans who work in government and politics.
U.S. intelligence officials also have assessed China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use in its war against Ukraine.
And tensions flared last year after Mr. Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States.
President-elect Donald Trump has selected Chris Wright, a campaign donor and fossil fuel executive, to serve as energy secretary in his upcoming, second administration.
CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Wright is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking, a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market.
Trump also said in a statement Saturday that Wright will serve on the newly-created National Energy Council, which will be chaired by North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s selection for secretary of the Interior.
Burgum will oversee a panel that crosses all executive branch agencies involved in energy permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation and transportation, Trump said in a previous statement.
Wright has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change and could give fossil fuels a boost, including quick action to end a year-long pause on natural gas export approvals by the Biden administration.
Wright also has criticized what he calls a “top-down” approach to climate by liberal and left-wing groups and said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.”
Consideration of Wright to head the administration’s energy department won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm.
Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term.
Hamm helped organize an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in April where Trump reportedly asked industry leaders and lobbyists to donate $1 billion to Trump’s campaign, with the expectation that Trump would curtail environmental regulations if re-elected.
The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States. The agency is in charge of maintaining the country’s nuclear weapons, oversees 17 national research laboratories and approves natural gas exports, as well as ensuring environmental cleanup of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex. It also promotes scientific and technological research.
Republican Sen. John Barrasso, who is expected to become chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Trump promised bold choices for his Cabinet, and Wright’s nomination delivers.
“He’s s an energy innovator who laid the foundation for America’s fracking boom. After four years of America last energy policy, our country is desperate for a secretary (of energy) who understands how important American energy is to our economy and our national security,″ Barrasso said of Wright, adding: “Wright will help ensure America remains committed to an all-of-the-above energy policy that puts American families first.”
Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, a conservative group that supports fossil fuels, said Wright would be “an excellent choice” for Energy secretary. Pyle led Trump’s Energy Department’s transition team in 2016.
Liberty is a major energy industry service provider, with a focus on technology. Wright, who grew up in Colorado, earned undergraduate degree at MIT and did graduate work in electrical engineering at the University of California-Berkeley and MIT. In 1992, he founded Pinnacle Technologies, which helped launch commercial shale gas production through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
He later served as chairman of Stroud Energy, an early shale gas producer, before founding Liberty Resources in 2010.
