5 Things You Need to Know about the Real Estate Market in 2013

We all know the real estate market has not been good for years, but things might be looking up a bit for 2013. Based on research and expert predictions for 2013, here are 5 things you need to know about the housing market for this upcoming year.
1.    The Lending Process-In 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has set out to design a law precisely meant to prevent unethical lending. What does this mean? Not only will there be an even stricter lending process but buyers will have clear language defining “which mortgages can be judged to be beyond a borrower's ability to repay.” If lenders ignore this language it will lead to “legal and financial implications for the lender that wrote the loan.”  Although it may sound scary to think about even stricter mortgage lending rules, in the long run this will be highly beneficial to the overall real estate market and help stabilize it even further. (Information gathered from ZipRealty)

2.    Low Inventory-You may have noticed recently that there are many people interested in buying a home but just not enough homes on the market right now. This will continue into 2013, foreclosures have slowed down considerably and sellers are not interested in selling their homes right now because of 2 reasons:
                1. Mortgage rates are so low homeowners are simply able to refinance at a much lower rate.  
                2. Most people who are interested in selling their home think they could walk away without any appreciation on their home-barely breaking even or not at all.

3.    More Buying Power- Although the lack of inventory in the housing market does pose a problem there is good news. “In September 2012, the Federal Reserve announced a plan to invest $40 billion per month to purchase mortgage debt in order to help boost the economy.” Quoted from Anton Seiss. This plan had the effect that the Federal Reserve was going for and mortgage rates lowered.

4.    Incredibly Low Mortgage Rates Won’t Last Forever- There is some prediction out there of those incredibly low mortgage rates rising a bit in the new year, so Buyers now is the best time to get out there and start looking for your new home and take advantage of the currently and historically low mortgage rates!

5.    Home Prices on the Rise- We have seen a steady rise in home pricing and it is only going to go up from here as predicted by industry experts. This means that buying or selling a home now is actually the best time.  Here’s why: Home sellers, due to the low inventory you have more power to actually get appreciation out of your home when selling.  Home Buyers you can rest assured that if you buy your new home now your home purchase will not lose value.  

If you want more information on the Home Buying or Home Selling Process in Warner Robins and Houston County GA please contact me! 

Rebecca Johnson, Realtor
Freedom Realtors of Middle Georgia
(478)320-1186
[email protected]