2024 Real Estate Outlook: Stability, Opportunities and What it Means for You

2024 is well underway, and it’s time we bring you a look at what we believe the year holds for the real estate market. Unless you ascribe to the power of crystal balls, you probably know quite well that no one can predict with total certainty what will happen in the future. However, relying on years of experience and thorough research into market trends, we can be fairly confident in making a few educated predictions.

Mortgage Rates

As you likely know, mortgage rates hit a twenty year high in 2023 of 8%. This understandably caused a lot of frustration and discouragement for would-be home buyers. Perhaps what was most frustrating was how quickly these rates shot upwards. Believe me, we share your frustration. In GOOD NEWS, these rates have dropped back down into the 7% range. While we don’t predict any big drops in rates, we also don’t predict any rate hikes this year. Rates may, if we’re very lucky, decrease a little over the course of the year but we largely believe we will see overall stability in interest rates. This being said, if you find your dream home this spring, do not wait for rates to drop. This is still a strong market and many houses are selling quickly.

Supply and Demand

In the real estate market we talk a lot about “inventory.” Just like anything humans want to buy, the quantity available to purchase and the number of people wanting to purchase impacts the price point. If you need to buy toilet paper (sorry for the flashback to 2020) and there is plenty of toilet paper available and no more than the average number of people buying it, the price should stay stable. If you want to buy a home, you want there to be plenty of homes on the market to choose from and fewer buyers to compete with. This is how you land a “good deal” on a home. In good news for home buyers, the number of available homes on the market is up from the last few years (in which short supply of homes for sale drove home prices upwards quickly). But we are not predicting a significant decrease in housing prices. We do predict that the Fort Worth area market will continue to be strong as people continue to move to this area for our strong job market and as more homes become available due to the natural rhythms of people moving homes and new builds booming around the region (Did you know DFW built more homes than the state of California in 2023?).

What Does This Mean For You?

While we don’t predict dramatic changes in 2024 to our housing market, we do want to encourage you to consider the following:

1. Our housing market is strong. We know the national talk about real estate, inflation and, well, most things, tends to be negative. But we like to remind our friends and neighbors that real estate is a local business and varies widely from state to state and city to city. And right now Fort Worth is still a great place to invest in a home.
2. The interest rate rollercoaster has stabilized. Interest rates have most likely peaked but won’t be traveling down far. This means, if you’re a hopeful home buyer, we would not encourage you to wait around for long, particularly when it comes to new builds, which are a hot commodity right now.
3. More homes are coming. If you’ve been discouraged that you can’t find a home to buy, we would like to encourage you that we believe more houses will come available. Some buyers and sellers have been waiting to make a move to see what the market will do. But, for good or for ill, the market isn’t changing dramatically right now. This means, people who have been waiting to move are likely to go ahead and take the plunge. And for home buyers, this means more houses will be coming available on the market. We encourage you to start your search now.
4. Good news for sellers. Since this continues to be a strong market and prices do not show signs of trending downwards, this is a great time to sell your home. As interest rates have also stabilized, more buyers are in the market for a home. That means your home could be in high demand. Talk to us about how to present your home in the best possible light so that you can attract buyers quickly!

Welcome to 2024! We think it’s going to be a great year. If you want to pick our brains about some of the points above, talk about where to begin in your house-hunting journey, or begin the conversation about listing your home, we are always ready to serve! Give us a call or send us an email. We love serving this city and are proud of the work that we do.