Looking to buy or sell your home in St. Lucie County in the near future? You deserve a local St Lucie County Real Estate Agent who knows the market and neighboring communities well. With nearly 20,000 registered real estate agents in Florida, seeking quality over quantity is key. Be sure that you make the educated choice in a real estate professional with The Dore Step Group. Great news for you, the year 2021’s housing market is expected to be greatly promising. Read on to discover market predictions for the upcoming year by Realtor.com, Zillow, Redfin and the National Association of Home Builders.
We will see a robust sellers’ market
This site predicts the upcoming year to. Their reasoning lies in two factors. Firstly, home prices have steadily hit new highs, climbing around 5.7%. The second reason is that buyer competition stays strong despite the slowly rebounding number of homes for sale. With inventory expected to make a slow but steady comeback, buyers will get some relief. The increasing mortgage rates and prices however, makes affordability a challenge throughout the year. “The 2021 housing market will be much more ‘normal’ than the wild swings we saw in 2020,” Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com offers. “Buyers may finally have a better selection of homes to choose from later in the year but will face a renewed challenge of affordability as prices stay high and mortgage rates rise.”
Home sales growth will be biggest since the ‘80s
To much surprise, 2020 was a strong year for the housing market. Sales are on pace to grow nearly 6% despite pressing ‘pause’ in the midst of the 2020 spring shopping season. From their expectations, Zillow remarks that number will be greatly surpassed. They forecast over a 21% annual growth for a total of nearly 7 million homes sold. Should this be true, it would mean the biggest annual sales growth since the year 1983. To add to that, a third of homeowners considering selling in the next three years cited economic instability to blame. Mainly life and financial uncertainty as reasons they choose not to selling this fall. With the COVID-19 vaccine rolling out, economic recovery should pull many off the sidelines. This adds more inventory to meet the heavy demand for homes and thus creating more transactions.
It will be a game or rates – Low mortgage but high ownership
Redfin predicts 30-year-fixed mortgage rates will rise slowly but continue to hover around 3%. This could lead to homebuyers being less willing to bid up home prices. However, it won’t likely be a large enough change to deter them from purchasing homes. The reason mortgage rates remain low is thought to be due to sluggish economic recovery. For the first time since 2005, homeownership rates are thought to be nearly 70%. Remote work during the pandemic has set off a reduced commute rate, increasing the desire for homeownership. In an effort to reduce costs, those who lived in expensive cities close to work are no longer seeing use for it. This has lead to abandonment of apartments to buy their first home in more affordable places. Additionally, some landlords in urban areas are also losing tenants. This will further fuel the homeownership rate as they sell their investment properties.
Building and Construction will thrive
A surprise to many, NAHB states residential construction was promising for the 2020 economy. Initially, we saw a decline in builder confidence and construction activity in March and April. However, after these months, the outlook for building improved considerably. Home builders reportedly cited supply-side concerns related to material costs and delivery times in the earlier times. Land and lot availability were also reported a challenge. In all of 2020, single-family starts were up almost 11 percent over the previous year. Remodeling was strong across all of 2020. The primary drivers of gains in 2020 were low interest rates and a renewed focus on the importance of housing during the pandemic. In the midst of change, the geographical shift of demand was a key factor for 2020 housing. Buyers wanted more space, and the increase in telecommuting allowed buyers and renters to drive farther from urban cores to attain more affordable housing.
We will continue to see an increase in homebuyers making sight-unseen offers
As experienced by The Dore Step Group in 2020, many homebuyers choose to make a home sight-unseen offer. In fact, a Redfin survey found that an average of 45% of homebuyers did so. With the safety and convenience in mind, data shows the trend is becoming more common. Our team has conducted video tours, where an agent views a home while the buyer is on a video call. Included in the survey, Redfin found that these types of tours now account for nearly one in ten requests. Many sites, including Redfin have added 3D view walkthroughs. Here, a homebuyer can point and click through a 3D scan of a home. The greater interest in 3D walkthroughs and video tours, coupled with more people relocating entirely, hints that the sight-unseen homebuying trend may continue. Whatever your preference, The Dore Step Group wants to make you feel confident making an offer before having to step foot in the home.
The real estate professionals at The Dore Step Group are agents with focus in relocations and community expertise. With excellent communication skills, our professionals use verbal and written means effectively. Working well in fast-paced and time sensitive work environments, they are able to serve clients well even in St. Lucie’s hot real estate market. Smart and connected, The Dore Step Group is committed to each client’s needs. Clients rave about their excellent experience. The team’s attention is on every little detail. Another reason families love working with The Dore Step Group is their honesty. The Dore Step Group takes great care to ensure they’re finding the right solution for every client. Their mission is helping families envision their future home by walking them through the real estate process.
The goal of The Dore Step Group is to succeed by maintaining a reputation for fulfilling the customers’ desires and requirements for buying or selling their home.