March 2024 Real Estate and Mortgage Report
The real estate market continues to exceed expectations. There are more than 1M fewer foreclosures in the last five years, home prices rose in 96 of the top 100 largest metropolitan areas over the last four quarters, and Americans are sitting on tremendous equity. Insights “Policymakers now risk committing another policy error, this time by waiting too long to begin cutting interest rates. It is unclear why Fed officials feel it necessary to take this risk. After all, they’ve all but achieved their dual mandates of a full-employment economy and low and stable inflation. Mark Zandi, Chief Economist, Moody’s Analytics “Looking back at the year, 2023 appears to have exceeded average annual home price gains over the past 35 years . . . While we are not experiencing the double-digit gains seen in the previous two years, above trend growth should be well received considering the rising costs of financing home mortgages. Brian D. Luke, Head of Commodities, S&P Dow Jones Indices Forecasts Goldman Sachs, Mortgage Bankers Association, Zillow, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and NAR all agree that home prices will increase in 2024. Looking back at the forecasts made in November 2023, we can see that the major