Newsweek
Americans with home-buying dreams in the near future are keeping a close eye on interest rates, hoping for good news in 2024. The U.S. has reached a peak in interest rates and the cost of borrowing for a home could fall next year and encourage more sales of houses currently stifled by elevated mortgage rates and low inventory, Lawrence Yun, National Association of Realtors® chief economist said. Yun suggested that, after the Fed paused rates in their last two meetings, that the sector may have reached its peak in terms of rates. "The question is when are rates going to come down," he said. Yun anticipated mortgage rates in 2024 could fall to between 6 or 7 percent by the spring. Should mortgage rates fall, it could spur activity in the market by both buyers and sellers, experts say, compared to the current dynamic in the sector where increasingly wealthy purchasers are the only ones able to afford to pay down payments which are at the highest since before the pandemic, according to Realtor.com® data. Decline in rates could encourage sellers to enter the market, according to NAR's Yun. "Pent-up sellers cannot wait any longer. People will begin to say, 'life goes on,'" said Yun. "Listings will steadily show up, and new home sales will continue to do well. Existing home sales will rise by 15 percent next year."
