If you’re thinking of selling your home, you’re probably wondering what to expect from the housing market in 2022.

The housing market will continue to be strong, but may start to normalize in 2022, according to the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR)’s Chief Economist, Lawrence Yun. Yun believes that the market will slow, but that prices will continue to rise.

Yun and his team predict that annual median home prices will increase by 5.7%, inflation will rise 4% and the Fed will increase the federal funds rate by 0.25% two times in 2022. An increase in the fed funds rate will cause mortgage rates to rise as well.

Most of the early COVID-19 rules – stay-at-home orders, mask mandates and social distancing – have expired. However, some states and localities continue to have restrictions – and many others are considering reinstating them in response to the Omicron variant and surging COVID-19 infection rates. If you’re getting ready to sell, be sure to check with your agent to see what rules are in place.

In the absence of hard rules and with COVID-19 still out there, it’s largely up to sellers to decide what precautions seller’s and listing agents must take when showing their home.

The real estate industry has changed significantly since March 2020, but it has successfully adapted to the challenges of COVID-19 by relying heavily on technology.

Real estate agents have long been using social media, online pictures and virtual tours to market their properties. With photo/video platforms like Instagram, Periscope and Facebook Live, agents can host virtual showings to their entire social network to yield new leads.

“Even before COVID-19, social media was a major factor in the way we brought listings to buyers”, says Ryan Tombul, a Nashville REALTOR®, J. D. “Social media doubles as an avenue for free marketing that allows agents to supplement exposure for listings within their own personal network and beyond”.

Virtual home tours have increased the speed and cost of selling a property, but the process itself is the same. Listing agents oversee the creation of your home’s digital profile. Buyers view what has been created from the comfort of their home. Ideally, buyers would then send the listings they’re interested into their agents to arrange showings.

Virtual tours have become the new norm in the real estate business.

“I think in today's digital era, it’s much easier to connect with clients”, says Lisa Alexander. “We used to keep our virtual tours for our luxury homes, but we’ve found it adds to the home buying experience for our clients. We feel as though this will become the new normal”.

Whether buyers will be willing to continue the home buying process online when the next buyer’s market (or at least some kind of equilibrium) is established, is anyone’s guess.

Internet: <https://www.rocketmortgage.com> (adapted).