I wrote this last December and never published I but saved it as a draft. The headline is what I originally wrote. Most of my predictions for 2020 were correct. I just missed the pandemic which changed just about everything except for the demand for housing.
Also, I didn’t expect interest rates to get below 3%, not this year or ever. Right now they are below 3%.
Here were my predictions:
2019 is almost over and as predicted the housing market was pretty much the same as it was in 2018 except we thought interest rates would go up, not down. 2020 is likely to be similar to 2019.
Home values will continue to rise but more slowly. The shortage of homes for sale will continue. During the last two years, we have set records for having the fewest houses on the market. In 2020 we may break those records.
People still ask why there are fewer houses on the market. There are two reasons. The first is that the demand for houses is high, and the second is because there is a lot of homes owned by older generations. Older people are less likely to move than younger people are.
We did hit an all-time low in St. Paul for the number of homes on the market in August of 2018. We hit a new all-time low for the Twin Cities region in November 2020 and we could break that record this month. I right about breaking the all-time low record in 2020.
My predictions for 2021 are going to be similar except I think we will see a surge (I hate that word) of activity in the second half of the year. During the first half of the year, those who survive the holidays may stay home until they can be vaccinated.
If congress doesn’t free up some relief money just ignore everything I wrote because we may end up in an economic depression.
