Blog with Masonboro Realty

Daily Real Estate News | July 6, 2011

Nearly two-thirds of economists and real estate experts recently polled say the U.S. housing market is at a historic turning point. More than half say they expect national home prices to reach bottom this year and remain stable — with a modest 2 percent average annual growth — through 2015, according to MacroMarkets LLC’s June Home Price Expectations Survey.

MacroMarkets polled more than 100 housing experts, including Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of REALTORS®; Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist; and others.

Most of the experts polled said they believe the bottom for housing prices occurred in the first quarter of 2011 or will arrive sometime before the end of the year.

While predictions varied somewhat, on average, panelists predict a 3.52 percent decrease in home prices in the fourth-quarter of 2011 compared to the same period in 2010. They predict then small increases every year through the fourth-quarter of 2015, when prices are expected to rise 3.47 percent on an annual basis.