If there is one
question that homeowners and prospective shoppers have in common as we enter
the New Year, it’s about the direction of New Orleans
real estate values in 2014. Small wonder: the financial market meltdown
of the last decade had such a profound impact on all forms of real estate that it
still has many people looking nervously over their shoulders. How likely is
another tumble in the coming 12 months? Will real estate values in New Orleans
continue to rise? Knowing the answer could make a big difference to anyone
planning to buy or sell a home in New Orleans this
year.
Of course, absolute certainty on that score is not possible
for anyone without a time machine in their basement. But, as we look back over
last year, we might gain a little bit more confidence by hearing from the
experts who got it right in 2013.
Foremost among them was Dr. Lawrence Yun, the chief
economist of the National Association of Realtors®.
Last year, he was dead-on.
Dr. Yun is calling for a continued rise in prices—pretty
much in line with the past year’s gains. To compensate for expected mortgage
interest rate gains—the likely effect of the Federal Reserve’s easing of policies
that fueled 2013’s financial markets—he suspects that lending institutions will
ease borrowing strictures. That’s
something we can all applaud!
Overall, if New Orleans real estate values in 2014 follow
the NAR’s national prognostications, we would expect real estate value
increases either like the Wall Street
Journal’s quoted prediction of 6%, or of Dr. Yun’s 5%. Either would not be surprising,
given last year’s New Orleans real estate values numbers. What the NAR experts
and the Journal also agree upon is a flattening
of residential housing sales volume in line with 2013 levels.
How much credence can we give to what the seers predict? Perhaps
a little more than usual. “The NAR forecast could be viewed as restrained in
light of the housing market’s gains in the past two years,” says the Journal; and “…other 2014 forecasts are
fairly close to Mr. Yun’s predictions.”
Terez Harris NOLA Real Estate Group
(504)297-2619
Keller
Williams Realty New Orleans 8601 Leake Ave. New Orleans, LA 70118 504-862-0100
Each
office independently owned and operated. All brokers licensed in the state of
Louisiana.
No comments:
Post a Comment