What to Expect in 2020 Real Estate and Strategic Moves for Buyers and Sellers

The new year will bring changes to the housing market. But it won’t be a dramatic shift. Instead, the trends will be intensifications of what the market has already seen: a focus on affordability, low mortgage rates, and Millennials taking center stage while Baby Boomers and Gen Xers hang low. Find out what steps buyers and sellers can take to succeed in 2020.

Ten years ago, many homeowners were desperately hoping to hang on to their homes. Others were doing everything they could just to scare up potential buyers. Meanwhile, said buyers were struggling to get financing from newly skittish lenders. Ah, memories. What a difference a decade makes!

It has, in fact, been the most consequential stretch in American real estate history, one that has fundamentally altered the landscape. Cosmopolitan coastal cities are out; affordable midsize cities are in. Baby boomers and Gen Xers are no longer the dominant forces in buying, ceding that turf to millennials. Yet after all this time, it seems that home buyers still can't get much of a break, according to a new report from realtor.com®.

“In 2020, there will be opportunity for buyers, but in many ways the challenges they’ve faced for years are going to persist—challenges like difficulty finding the home that’s right for them, and competing with other buyers, especially in affordable price points," says Danielle Hale, chief economist at realtor.com, whose team pulled together a forecast of housing trends for 2020.

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