Where's the Montgomery County Market Heading in 2015?

There are many great Montgomery County area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (215) 576-8666 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

The new year is here, and we have some big news! Today, we'll give you a rundown of some of the real estate trends we saw in 2014, and predict what you can expect to see from the Montgomery County over the next few years

Year-over-year, we've seen an increase in home prices in every region in the country. However, when comparing the most recent numbers, it appears that the growth in prices has slowed down from where they were at three months ago. When breaking down the numbers by state, you'll notice that 49 of the 50 states saw healthy appreciation in 2014. In January of last year, we saw an appreciation rate of 13.2% over 2013. By the time December rolled around, appreciation rates were hovering around 5% - home prices were still rising, but at a slower pace.

Before the bubble, home prices were appreciating at a rate of 3.6%. During the bubble, between 2000-2007, home prices surged to a 7% appreciation rate. The bust, of course, saw home prices plummet, depreciating at a rate of 5.1% until the market started recovering at the beginning of 2012. To date, the market has seen an average appreciation rate of 5.9%, which is higher than pre-bubble rates! What's going to happen next?

Recently, a panel of over 100 economists, real estate experts, and market strategists were asked their opinion of where prices are heading. The idea was to get a solid sample of what these experts were expecting from the housing market. Some were aggressively confident, others were pretty nervous, and some landed right in the middle. The average of all the responses found that, overall, appreciation is expected to soften over the course of 2015, before reaching a stable 3.2% for the next four years.

Now, moving on to sales. Since last year, we have seen a 9.7% or higher price increase in every price range. The only exception is homes under $100,000, which actually decreased in sales by 6%. The reason for such a large increase in homes is because now is a great time to buy. Interest rates have been hovering near historic lows all year, and there are many great opportunities in the market right now. The fact that people who know how to build wealth are the most active in the market should be a lesson for us all.   

If you have any questions about our market, or would like assistance buying or selling, don't hesitate to give us a call or shoot us an email. We would love to hear from you! 

Also, if you're interested in the home staging process, we encourage you to sign up for our Home Selling Seminar on January 24th! We're going to serve breakfast and have a short seminar before having a hour-long secret staging session! We would love to see you there!