Despite the national slump in real estate sales, Lawrence Yun, the chief economist at the National Association of Realtors (NAR), is forecasting that mortgage rates will fall closer to 6.0 percent by the end of 2023 and go below 6.0 percent in 2024. He expects new and existing-home sales to bottom out in 2023 before an upturn in 2024.
During the “Residential Economic Issues and Trends” forum at NAR’s recent legislative meetings in Washington D.C., Yun also disclosed that the Federal Reserve’s most recent rate hike was unnecessary, and he expects the Fed will stop raising interest rates further.
Yum blamed the Fed’s aggressive rate hikes for hurting the real estate market as well as regional makes, noting that inflation has already started to relax. “Inflation will not reignite—inflation will come down closer to 3 percent by the year’s end,” he said. “Inflation has calmed down while rents are still accelerating.”…