The National Association of Realtors held their 2012 Realtors Conference and Expo this past weekend and their chief economist, Lawrence Yun, confirmed that the housing market turned around in 2012. “Existing home sales, new home sales and housing starts are all recording notable gains this year in contrast with suppressed activity in the previous four years, and all of the major home price measures are showing sustained increases,” he said. With rising demand and an ongoing decline in housing inventory, Yun made several forecasts for 2013 and beyond. He predicts that the national median existing home price should rise 5.1 percent to $185,200 in 2013 and continue to rise in 2014. Existing home sales are forecasted to rise 8.7 percent to 5.05 million in 2013 and 5.3 million in 2014. New home sales are expected to increase to 575,000 units – a 36% percent increase over 2012. Housing starts are forecasted to rise over a million in 2013 to a forecasted 1.13 million – a 73% increase over a record low of 301,000 starts in 2011. Yun forecasts mortgage interest rates to rise to an average of 4.0 percent in 2013 and 4.6 percent in 2014 from inflationary pressures. The market share of distressed sales is expected to decline from 25 percent in 2012 to single digits in 2014.
Epic Development is experiencing these changes in the market as well. Lot and land acquisitions are more and more competitive and most of our new homes go under contract before construction begins. These changes will continue to drive prices up in the Atlanta market. For more information about homeownership or real estate investment in Atlanta call Jim LaVallee at 404-847-9080 or write Jim@EpicDevelopment.com. View all the details of our current listings here. For more information about commercial real estate operations or investment visit EpiCity.com.