OKC home prices expected to continue to rise

Listen to this article

Home prices in the Oklahoma City market are expected to continue to accelerate in the coming year, according to Realtor.com.

It’s anticipated that home prices in the market will jump by an average 2.6% in the new year from 2021 levels. Sales, too, are expected to increase by 3.7% year-over-year.

Realtor.com’s 2022 Housing Forecast calls for brisk activity in markets across the country in 2022. Home sales are expected to hit a 16-year high. The for-sale home supply will begin to recover from recent declines, but millennial demand will likely keep supply limited through at least 2025, the online real estate marketer reported. Affordability will become increasingly difficult for some buyers, as mortgage rates are expected to climb to 3.6% and listing prices are expected to rise to new record-highs in many markets.

“With more sellers expected to enter the market as buyer competition remains fierce, we anticipate strong home sales growth at a more sustainable pace than in 2021,” said Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale. “Affordability will increasingly be a challenge as interest rates and prices rise, but remote work may expand search areas and enable younger buyers to find their first homes sooner than they might have otherwise. And with more than 45 million millennials within the prime first-time buying ages of 26-35 heading into 2022, we expect the market to remain competitive.”

According to the forecast, 2022 home sales are expected to rise 6.6% year-over-year, touching their highest levels in 16 years.

The new construction supply gap of 5.2 million new homes may shrink somewhat in 2022 as builders continue to ramp up production with a projected increase of 5% year-over-year.

With rents forecasted to grow at a faster annual pace (+7.1%) than for-sale home prices (+2.9%) in 2022, homebuying may become the more affordable option, Realtor.com said.

Despite the challenging market, the homeownership rate is expected to grow slightly in 2022.

Nationally, existing home sales are expected to rise 6.6% year-over-year. For-sale inventory is expected to rise 0.3%. The median sales price for an existing home is expected to rise 2.9%.