If you are buying or selling property in the USA, 2023 couldn’t begin on a happier note for you. The United States is back, and how! The U.S. economy has, for all practical purposes, recovered from the Great Recession of 2008 and is back to the engine of global growth. Indeed, China has lost quite a bit of its sheen following the Beijing stock market crash, and so the world is once again looking at the U.S. to lead the way to the future.
The momentum shown by the US economy is reflected in house price across the country. Indeed, prices of single-family homes in almost 40 percent of the cities in the U.S. are above the peak last witnessed in 2006 – just before the recession. This is exciting news for homeowners for sure.
As Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics says, “It’s a key benchmark. It means more and more people are building equity in their houses again.”
David M. Blitzer, chairman of the S&P Dow Jones Indices Index Committee agrees with the assessment that the situation in the U.S. property market has taken a turn for the better. He says, “Generally good economic conditions continue to support gains in home prices. Among the positive factors are consumers’ expectations of low inflation and further economic growth as well as recent increases in residential construction including single family housing starts.”
What’s helping push house prices higher is that in many cities, the number of houses put up for sale is quite low. This means homeowners are likely to sell their houses a lot faster. There are a lot more people bidding as well, which is great news all-round.
Indeed, the property market in the U.S. has an inventory of houses lasting 5 months, which is a level that indicates a tight market with limited supplies.
What has helped is that mortgages have so far been available at really cheap rates. But with the Federal Reserve rising interest rates by 0.25% in December, we expect the mortgage rates to increase gradually. No reason to worry though, as mortgage rates should remain stable well into 2023.
A lot of homeowners have benefited from the rise in property prices in cities such as Denver, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Bismarck, N.D. and Dallas, where prices are 15% to 50% over their pre-recession highs. If you have a home for sale in the USA, these are the places to be.
Nationally, according to Moody’s, prices are expected to climb by 5% in 2016, which is pretty decent. Charlotte, Portland, Oregon and Boston have witnessed a healthy growth in housing prices as they offer an excellent potential for job growth and have functional local economies.
However, the states of Florida, Arizona, Nevada and California were hit very badly by the housing crash and are still well below the peak rates witnessed in 2006. Even here, house prices have improved substantially since 2008, so it’s not all bad news.
As Blitzer adds, “with the stock market, people get excited when you pass the previous high. The housing cycle is a lot longer… But I think it does show a substantial recovery.”
The high prices on offer should convince more homeowners to put their homes for sale. Whether they do so or not, cannot really be predicted, as many homeowners, “have nowhere to go,” thanks to the limited inventory, explains a real estate broker, Sam Grogan.
One homeowner who has been looking to upgrade to a new six-bedroom house, Jack Seeley of South Charlotte, says that higher prices won’t help him much as he will only have to pay more for his new property. But at least, as Jack says, “I can put down a better down payment.” Sell USA property fast online to cash investors