The U.S. housing market continues its strong growth with all factors pointing towards an overall annual forecast appreciation of 4.2 percent according to Veros Real Estate Solutions [1] (Veros), a collateral valuations services provider. The VeroFORECAST, the company’s quarterly real estate market forecast for the 12-month period ending December 2018 expects only 3 percent of the markets to depreciate.
The forecast throws up some interesting trends and has predicted boom time for the Northwestern region of the U.S. with Washington leading the way. It indicated that parts of California are starting to see an uptick in appreciation with top performing markets such as San Diego, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Sacramento expected to appreciate in the range of 7.5 percent to 8 percent. On the other hand Dallas and Austin markets in Texas are softening and dropped 1 percent in forecast appreciation.
“Washington is set to boom- occupying all of the Top 5 market spots. Seattle is at No. 1 with expected appreciation of 12 percent followed by Bellingham, Bremerton, Kennewick, and Mount Vernon which are all near 10 percent. These markets show no signs of letting up as supply of homes is exceedingly low and populations continue to grow,” said Eric Fox, VP of Statistical and Economic Modeling at Veros.
While all eyes are trained on the Northwestern region for quick appreciations, the northeast states of Connecticut, New Jersey, Maine, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York have some of the weakest housing markets in the U.S., the forecast said.
The forecast predicts that high inventory of homes, long-term flat to declining population, and higher than national rate of unemployment are key factors that could lead to a predicted 1.2 percent to -2 percent, home price appreciation and depreciation in the Northeast.
According to the forecast, Bangor, Maine; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Longview, Texas; Vineland, New Jersey; and Atlantic City, New Jersey are predicted to be the worst performing markets with home appreciation ranging from -2 percent to -0.7 percent.
To read the complete report, click here [2].