There’s a natural inclination at the beginning of the year to look forward. The new year offers us a fresh start and a great time to set goals. For a lot of us, one of those goals will be to buy a house. But what should we expect out of the housing market in 2022? Well, according to a survey of more than 20 top economic and housing experts conducted by the National Association of Realtors, we can expect the market to normalize. “Overall, survey participants believe we’ll see the housing market and broader economy normalize [this] year,” Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said of the survey’s results. “Though forecasted to rise 4 percent, inflation will decelerate after hefty gains in 2021, while home price increases are also expected to ease with an annual appreciation of less than 6 percent.” Survey participants expect home sales to fall slightly from 2021 but they also see an uptick in the number of new homes built. And, while they expect mortgage rates to move higher, the increases aren’t expected to push rates higher than their pre-pandemic level. (source)