TRE Group - brokered by Exp Realty

Eight institutions. Eight different predictions. Not one of them agrees on what home prices will do in 2026.
J.P. Morgan says 0% growth — flat. The Mortgage Bankers Association says 0.6%. Zillow lands around 1%. Redfin says 1%. Morgan Stanley says 2%. realtor.com says 2.2%. Fannie Mae's survey of more than 100 housing experts says 2.4%. And NAR's chief economist is the most bullish of all at 4%.
That's a 4-point spread among serious institutions using real data.
So what do you actually do with this?
Stop trying to time a decision around "what the market's going to do." If the people whose entire job is forecasting can't agree within 4 percentage points, the honest answer is that nobody knows exactly what's coming — and building your strategy around any single prediction is a shaky foundation.
What actually matters is your specific situation. Your timeline. Your budget. Your market. Those variables will tell a more accurate story than any national forecast on this list.
Save this next time someone tells you with total confidence what home prices are "definitely" going to do this year.

If you've made an offer recently and lost to someone who paid cash, you're not imagining the disadvantage — it's real, and it's common.

All-cash buyers have consistently made up around 25–31% of existing-home sales transactions over the past year, depending on the month. These are often equity-rich repeat buyers, retirees, or investors who can skip financing entirely — which means faster closings and zero risk of a deal falling through over an appraisal or loan approval.

If you need a mortgage, here's how to compete anyway:

Get fully underwritten, not just pre-approved. This is a verified loan commitment, not just a pre-qualification letter — and it tells sellers your financing is essentially locked.

Shorten your contingency timelines where you can. A 10-day inspection period feels less risky to a seller than 21 days.

Write a clean, simple offer. Fewer asks, fewer special requests, more straightforward terms.

Consider an appraisal gap clause if you have the means — it tells the seller you'll cover a gap between offer price and appraised value up to a certain amount.

You can't out-cash a cash buyer. But you can out-prepare them. DM me and let's build your offer strategy.

For the last three years, there was a phenomenon quietly strangling housing supply called the 'lock-in effect.'

Here's what happened: millions of homeowners refinanced or bought at 2.5–3.5% mortgage rates during 2020 and 2021. When rates jumped to 6–7%, they refused to sell — because selling meant giving up that rate and getting a new mortgage at twice the cost. So they stayed put.

That decision, multiplied by millions of homeowners, is one of the main reasons inventory was so scarce from 2022–2024.

Now, slowly, that's changing.

As rates have eased to 6.3% — and as life happens (divorce, death, retirement, growing families, job relocations) — more of those locked-in homeowners are deciding to move regardless. The lock-in effect is thawing.

Inventory is up 9% this year in part because of this. And as rates continue to ease, more sellers who've been waiting will enter the market.

For buyers: this means more options are coming. Patience has a payoff.
For sellers who have been waiting for 'the right time': rates may not drop dramatically. Life doesn't wait. Your equity is real right now.

DM me and let's talk about your situation honestly.