On Wednesday’s “CNN News Central,” co-host Kate Bolduan remarked that “2023 was a tough year for the economy” and it was “even tougher for the housing market.” And CNN Business Correspondent Rahel Solomon stated that while mortgage rates will decline in 2024, “it’s not going to be significant,” but it’ll hopefully lead to more listings and help affordability.
Bolduan began the segment by saying, “2023 was a tough year for the economy, to say the least, and even tougher for the housing market. Mortgage rates reached a 23-year high, home sales sank to a 13-year low, add that together with some more, and the ability for people to afford a home hit its lowest point since 1984. Yet, 4.5 million people still bought a home this year.”
Solomon then said, “It has certainly been a rough year for a lot of people in the housing space, whether you were a buyer, whether you were a seller, whether you were even an agent, 2023 was a rough year. And yet, 4.5 million people still managed to buy a house in 2023. And it seems like, when you talk to folks in this space, it really came to one being clear about what your goals were. So, if it was location, if it was affordability — that would have been a tough goal — but whatever your goal was, sort of being clear about that strategy, being prepared to essentially wait it out if you might because it was a tougher year than it has been in a really long time, and then also being willing to be flexible. It wasn’t exactly the type of year that you would call a buyer’s market, and so, if you were looking, you had to be a little bit creative, you had to be a little bit more compromising.”
Solomon added that being more aggressive also helped in 2023 and “Moving forward, if you were not one of the 4.5 million people in 2023 who bought a home, 2024 is actually looking better. So, no matter who you’re talking to, whether it’s the Mortgage Bankers Association, whether it’s Redfin, listings are expected to go up. So, we’re expecting to see better supply in 2024 and rates are expected to go down. Now, I say that with a huge caveat…what I hear most often is 6.5%, which is not 2s, it is not 3s, but it is certainly better than that 7.7 that we had seen within the last year. So, I think buyers will appreciate any decline, it’s not going to be significant, but it will certainly help. It will also help in terms of listings. We’ll see more, you’ll see lower rates, and hopefully that will help on the affordability issue.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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