If you’ve been paying attention the last few years, you’ve seen the housing market on a wild ride. Whether you’ve purchased a primary residence or built a home from the ground up, things just aren’t what they used to be. According to the experts, the future is still a little uncertain, but there are a few things you can count on as the housing market attempts to correct itself in 2023. 

Buyers Will Gain Some Advantages

It’s been a seller’s market for quite some time, but buyers rejoice: your time has arrived. The market is slowly shifting to become more buyer-friendly, but that doesn’t mean sellers are out of luck, either. Mortgage rates continue to rise, and they take home prices upward with them. Sellers will have to realize that pricing their homes too high – and perhaps even at the current market value – could keep those homes on the market indefinitely. As sellers start to decrease prices to keep homes in that sweet spot, buyers will slowly gain a little more control. This will ultimately help correct and balance the market. 

Inventory Is on the Rise

Inventory is a bit hard to predict right now. Some cities have excessive empty homes, while others are down more than a quarter from last year’s already dismal options. However, experts have noted two trends that will impact inventory in the rest of 2023. First, more homes than usual are being taken off the market, and second, listed homes stay on the market longer. This seems to indicate that as soon as the federal rates stabilize and increases stop, there will be an influx of homes entering the market. 

Prices Are Set to Drop

While massive declines in home prices are not expected, experts are confident that they will come down – at least a little – by the end of 2023. Year-over-year prices have come down somewhat, but today’s prices are still much higher than in 2020 and 2021. Between sellers trying to find a happy medium just to get their homes sold and mortgage rates starting to stabilize, it’s likely that prices will fall at least somewhat. This could be negated if buyers start flooding the market en masse, though. Increased demand may keep prices high. 

Buyers Will be Much More Careful

Buyers – including investors – will be much more careful about where they spend their money this year. They’ve been forced to bid against countless other buyers for a very limited inventory, which has led to some serious problems. As inventory increases, buyers will have more options available to them, which means sellers will need to go above and beyond to make homes more attractive. More and better renovations, lower prices, and other incentives are expected to find their way back into negotiations during 2023. 

If the ups and downs of the housing market these last few years have left you feeling like you’re on a roller coaster, you’ll be glad to know that 2023 will likely be the year of correction. Rates, inventory, and prices will all begin to stabilize, which will help even the playing field for buyers, sellers, and investors alike.