CLEVELAND — While 2021 left a lot of potential home buyers discouraged, real estate experts predict home sales to continue at a faster pace, while home appreciation could increase again by double digits.
Alexandra Lee serves as an economist at Zillow Group. The online real estate marketplace recently published its predictions for 2022, which estimates the new year could bring the potential for the highest number of homes sold since 2006.
“We’re seeing home price appreciation at the highest it’s ever been,” Lee said. “The housing market is tough out there. Expect a little bit more breathing room, but buyers should really be prepared for a competitive market to continue in 2022.”
Data from Zillow shows home value growth already peaked in the Cleveland market in 2021, back in August at 18% year-over-year.
“That’s a monumental amount of home price growth,” Lee said. “Now it’s at 17% year-over-year as of October. We expect that to continue slowing down into 2022.”
So far in 2021, data from MLS Now, the realty listing service in Northeast Ohio, shows the average home sold for more than 12% higher than in 2020.
Lydia Pope serves as the president of theNational Association of Real Estate Brokers, and told News 5 the number of homes hitting the market is still a problem, holding back a record number of prospective buyers.
“We do see an increase in inventory, maybe not a large one, but you will see a difference in 2022,” she said. When a seller wants to sell their home, the problem is they can sell their home but they don’t have a property to go to.”
For those considering buying or selling in the new year, Pope said stay patient and be ready.
“Get it ready cause we have a lot of buyers who want to buy your house,” she said to potential sellers. “I want to tell buyers: make sure your credit is right and stay focused. The thing about real estate is you don’t know when that house is going to come up at the right price at the right time.”
It’s a year that brought house hunters waiving inspections, covering appraisal gaps, and even buying homes sight-unseen before hitting the market.
Since buying his Ohio City home in 2014, Jon Neinaber is used to all the requests to sell his home, even as construction continues on an addition to his home.
“I get phone calls, emails, texts asking all the time,” he said. “A little too late now with the addition. We’re just looking to add an addition and with working from home, just need some space to spread out and the little one.”
Neinaber’s builder, Tony Kucia with Cleveland Custom Builders, splits half his workload with remodels and the other half with new builds.
“It’s been pretty busy all year round,” Kucia said. “Your home build process has gone anywhere from a 6-8 month process to a 9-12 month process.”
Despite dealing with supply shortages and permitting backlogs, Kucia is optimistic about his business heading into 2022.
“We thought this was a great year, next year is going to be even better,” he said. “There’s been such pent up demand.”
