Hope for Housing Market? Michigan real estate agent provides 2025 outlook

It's been a long road of high rates and market difficulty. We've had this pressure on buying for so long that the pent-up demand is just crazy. And at some point, pent-up demand has to release itself. But Lisa Damron, broker-owner of Remax Paired Associates, shines a little hope on the situation. I don't see any way that we don't see at least a slight improvement in the number of sales and the movement of housing in 2025 than we did in 2024. Looking ahead to this year, Damron expects interest rates to hover just over 6%. Which is certainly better than the 8s and the 7s that we saw, and probably not going to get a lot better. But there could be an upside to that, pertaining to the locked-in effect. That refers to homeowners tied to low-interest mortgage rates, unwilling to trade for a higher one. Meaning someone like me, I'm a great example. I have a 2% interest rate on my current mortgage. Even if I was in a position where I wanted to sell or thought about selling and moving, it'd be a very hard thing to do. Although they aren't great, Damron thinks people may be getting more used to rates staying around 6%. So that locked-in effect might ease up a little bit, and those people that were kind of holding on to those low rates might make the move. That still leaves the problem of affordability. Damron referred back to a quote from Lawrence Young, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. He was saying, you know, there is no housing crisis if you're a homeowner. You have a great interest rate, your house is appreciated immensely. It's the affordability that's the crisis. So it's not the homeowners who feel like they're in a crisis, it's those who want to buy. Damron is offering a piece of advice though, ultimately saying to stick it out. Waiting for a better market never seems to be the thing to do because you're never really going to outpace appreciation overall. Damron also stressed the benefit of using a real estate agent while navigating the current market, saying you're much less likely to lose if you've got a partner to work with and offer advice. Live in studio, Mackenzie Decker, News Channel 3.