Get ready for the healthiest spring home-buying season since 2007, according to Freddie Mac’s U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook for March.
The mortgage giant is forecasting low mortgage rates and increasing housing prices to continue, as well as gradually improving consumer confidence that will likely boost home sales this spring.
Sales are expected to rise 8 to 10 percent in 2013 compared to 2012 numbers, Freddie economists report. Freddie Mac also expects housing starts to rise to 950,000 units this year compared to 780,000 in 2012.
"History shows us not all economic recoveries are created equal, and consumer confidence mirrors this fact,” says Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “With the spring home-buying season upon us, the recent highs in the stock market are a welcome signal of better times ahead. But it will be the gradually declining unemployment rate and steadily improving housing market that will deliver broad-based economic benefits for Americans and, in turn, support the overall recovery."
Source: Freddie Mac