Happy Holidays and 2020 Housing Outlook
Happy holidays to everyone! It feels like they snuck up on me this year but I always take this time to stop and county my blessings. My wish for you, your family and loved ones is that you have a beautiful holiday season filled with love…love is the most important thing there in our lives! 
For those of you who follow my blog I apologize for having gone dark for a bit…needless to say it has been a hectic year, especially the last few months! I am excited to head into a new year and pick up blogging regularly once again. 2020 will be a great year, full of awakening on many levels.
As I do annually, here are my predictions for the housing market in the coming year…keep in mind that of course I do not have a crystal ball, and these predictions are based upon my knowledge of the industry and what I am seeing in my local housing market in San Diego County.
As always, I welcome your input and suggestions for blog topics within the real estate or legal realm – or combinations of the two. I have a large library of helpful blogs and love to hear from people when they do find one helpful or interesting.
2020 Housing Market Predictions
1. Buyers Market! I believe we will officially be in a buyer’s market shortly, as we have been heading that way for some time. This is great news for buyers who have been priced out of the market due to escalating prices over the last few years. Buyers will have more negotiating power, so if you have been waiting to buy 2020 could be a great time to do so.
2. Price Stabilization, or More Realism in Pricing – But There’s a Twist: Some people are banking on the idea that housing prices will drastically reduce, but I do not agree. What I do believe is that they will remain stable, and we will still see price reductions and more “realistic” (meaning close to comparative sold values and not over) market pricing. Here is the twist – due to the lower inventory levels (see below), there will likely be cases where multiple offers create bidding wars, leading to higher prices on some homes.
3. Less Inventory: As expected, when a market turns some sellers decide not to list and instead to wait out a market correction in their favor. Because of this I feel the inventory levels will remain low and buyers will have fewer choices. Could this mean that desirable homes in “hot” areas may get multiple offers and end up selling over comp value? That remains to be seen but I do not think it will be the norm – one study I read predicts 1 in 4 homes will go into a bidding war in 2020. Redfin states that inventory will be the lowest in 5 years. This could in turn lead to…
4. Possible Price Rises (I know – this sounds crazy but read on…it is part of the “twist” mentioned above): Again, with low inventory, low mortgage rates and interested buyers, the busy Spring/Summer selling season could showcase home price increases due to high demand. This could also spur other sellers to list their homes…so there could be a lot going on in the market next year.
5. Low Mortgage Rates Will Remain Low: This will spur those buyers to get out there and home shop, and will likely lead to competition.
In a nut shell 2020 will be an interesting year in housing: It will be a buyer’s market with more stabilized prices, low interest rates and low inventory, BUT those very factors could cause some bidding wars and price increases as the Spring/Summer selling season heats up.
