With rising inventory and modest expectations of demand growth, REALTORS® responding to the October 2014 survey expected home prices to increase modestly in the next 12 months, according to data gathered from the October 2014 REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey. Local conditions vary with expectations anchored on factors such as the level of inventory, the state of the local job market, and credit conditions.
Expect Modest Price Growth in Housing Market in Next 12 Months
The median expected price increase is about 3 percent. The map shows the median expected price change in the next 12 months based on the August – October 2014 surveys [2]. No state had a median expected price growth above 5 percent. States with the most upbeat price expectations (orange) include California, Washington, North Dakota, Texas, Florida, Georgia, the District of Columbia, and Massachusetts–states with strong housing markets, job growth, and economies.
[1] The median expected price change is the value such that 50 percent of respondents expect prices to change above this value and 50 percent of respondents expect prices to change below this value. A median expected price change is computed for each state based on the respondents for that state. The graph shows the range of these state median expected price change. To increase sample size, the data is averaged from the last three survey months.
[2] In generating the median price expectation at the state level, we use data for the last three surveys to have close to 30 observations. Small states such as AK,ND, SD, MT, VT, WY, WV, DE, and the D.C. may have less than 30 observations.