At the beginning of the year, housing experts and homebuyers looked forward to better buying conditions — interest rates were poised to drop, a shift expected to free up inventory and cool surging home prices.
That outlook has mostly changed.
Nearly halfway through 2024, the highly anticipated interest rate cuts have yet to happen, home prices are still growing, and affordability remains a challenge.
"We all expected that at this point in the year, we would see stronger home sales activity, and interest rates [would be] down," Jessica Lautz, deputy chief economist at the National Association of Realtors (NAR), told Yahoo Finance. "[Rates] moved back up into the 7% range, and that does put a damper on home sales activity, and it changes who can purchase a home."
Given the uncertainty, experts are widely revising their forecasts about rates and prices for the rest of 2024.