Both the construction of houses and home prices are expected to increase next year, while the nation’s overall homeownership rate will also see a slight uptick, according to a comprehensive new survey.
The site Realtor.com is anticipating a home sales growth of 6.6% in 2022, which, if realized, would comprise the largest such growth since 2006.
One of the driving factors behind the boom is the Millennial Generation, those born between 1981 and 1996, which is expected to prove a dominant force in the market.
Members of that generation now number more than 45 million and are made up of, says Realtor, “the prime first-time home buying ages of 26 to 35.”
The nation’s median home sale price is simultaneously slated to see a 2.9% increase in 2022, although affordability issues will “keep prices from advancing at the same pace” seen this year.
Actual home inventory, meanwhile, is expected to see an incremental increase next year of around 0.3%. “While buyers have been eager in the last 2 years,” says the survey, “sellers have been on and off.”
But at the same time an increasing number of homeowners this fall indicated in various surveys a willingness to put their homes on the market. Should that indication become reality it could prove a major factor in the market.
Other findings in the survey include a continuing demand for houses in the nation’s suburban neighborhoods, a factor somewhat bolstered by the remote working trends resulting from the Covid 19 pandemic.
Demographically, continues the survey, “Hispanic homebuyer are already a sizable share of the housing market, comprising more than 1 in 10 recent homebuyers.” Even so, they remain “under-represented relative to their roughly 1 in 5 share of the U.S. population.”
Currently, just under 50% of Hispanics own a home. But, says the survey, “with a growing share of the population and the potential for a rising homeownership rate, this demographic group is expected to play a growing role in the home buying market.”
By Garry Boulard
