Here’s What Housing Experts Anticipate in a Cooling Winter Market

Borrowing costs are falling, home price growth is slowing, and buyers are regaining negotiating power, but will a cooler market persist even after the winter season ends?

The winter housing market has been largely defined by cooling mortgage rates, dwindling competition, and a shifting power dynamic between buyers and sellers, and according to market experts, a gradual recession may point toward a more normal market in 2023. According to LendingTree senior economist Jacob Channel and Nadia Evangelou, senior economist and director of real estate research at the National Association of Realtors (NAR), lower mortgage rates in the coming year will bring some buyers back to the for-sale market, but demand likely won’t rise to levels seen in early 2022. 

Market experts like Realtor.com’s chief economist Danielle Hale also anticipate slower home price growth over the next year, though tangible changes to housing affordability will vary market by market, MarketWatch reports. 

“The milestone of single-digit price growth is really a continuation of the moderation that began in the summer when prices were growing at a pace of 18% year over year,” says Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. The report reveals that the median price of homes for sale has increased by 8.1% annually in January, which is slightly less than December’s growth rate with the national median list price remaining stable at $400,000 in January, down from a record high of $449,000 in June.

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