FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has forecasted that 4.78 million homes will be sold with prices remaining stable in 2023.
According to NAR's news release, the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers-Missouri market ranks 4th in the forecasted top 10 list of housing markets to watch. Key highlights from the forecast are listed below:
- NAR predicts 4.78 million existing-home sales in 2023, down 6.8% from 5.13 million in 2022.
- Annual median home prices are expected to increase by just 0.3%, following a 9.6% gain in 2022.
- Atlanta, Raleigh, Dallas, Fayetteville, Ark., and Greenville, S.C. join five other metropolitan areas among NAR’s top 10 housing markets in 2023.
Lawrence Yun, chief economist and senior vice president of research for NAR made and presented the association's forecast on Dec. 13 at their fourth annual Real Estate Forecast Summit.
It is predicted that home sales will decline by 6.8% compared to 2022 and the median home price will reach $385,800 - an increase of 0.3% from this year, according to NAR's forecast.
"Half of the country may experience small price gains, while the other half may see slight price declines," Yun said. "However, markets in California may be the exception, with San Francisco, for example, likely to register price drops of 10–15%."
NAR identified 10 real estate markets that it expects to perform better than other metro areas in 2023 in the following order:
- Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Georgia
- Raleigh, North Carolina
- Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas
- Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Arkansas-Missouri
- Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, South Carolina
- Charleston-North Charleston, South Carolina
- Huntsville, Alabama
- Jacksonville, Florida
- San Antonio-New Braunfels, Texas
- Knoxville, Tennessee
"The demand for housing continues to outpace supply," Yun said. "The economic conditions in place in the top 10 U.S. markets, all of which are located in the South, provide the support for home prices to climb by at least 5% in 2023."
The list was based on the following economic indicators:
- better housing affordability
- greater numbers of renters who can afford to buy a median-priced home;
- stronger job growth
- faster growth of information industry jobs;
- higher shares of the information industry in the respective local GDPs;
- migration gains
- shares of workers teleworking
- faster population growth
- faster growth of active housing inventory
- smaller housing shortages
The Northwest Arkansas Board of Realtors’ incoming president Chance Schubert thinks our demand is still slightly higher than our supply but thinks builders are starting to catch up.
“It'll bring some buyers back into our market. I think we'll continue to have a strong market but a more stable market and the fact that it'll be more level, we'll still have some price increases. But I think the bidding wars are pretty much over,” said Chance Schubert.
They also expect interest rates to go down slightly over the next year.
“The overall consensus is really the interest rates will go down slightly next year, which is a good thing. It's helped correct inflation that they were up there. But now's the time to bring them back down to help affordability,” he said.
To read more about the NAR's forecast and their markets to watch in 2023, click here.
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