Lawrence Yun, the National Association of Realtors chief economist, forecasts that home sales will increase by 9% in 2025 and 13% in 2026 after a low point in home sales. 

Yun highlighted that the “worst” of the housing shortage is coming to an end as mortgage rates stabilize and jobs are created.  

“2024 has been a very difficult year on many fronts,” Yun said in a news release. “We did not get the home sales recovery this year after an awful 2023.”

Despite the struggles, Yun said that household equity is at a record high in real estate, which has seen “a huge increase in wealth for Realtors®’ past clients, to the tune of $35 trillion.”

“Homeowners’ wealth steadily rises while renters’ wealth does not,” Yun said. “If you don’t enter the housing market, you are in the renter class where wealth is not being accumulated. If you want to participate in the housing market, the sooner you get in, the sooner you accumulate wealth.”

Yun found that the median net worth between homeowners and renters is $415,000 for homeowners and $10,000 for renters. 

With President-elect Donald Trump taking office on Jan. 20, Yun talked about what people can expect compared to his first term and the Biden administration. 

“Mortgage rates in his first term (at 4%) were the good old days,” Yun said. “Are we going to go back to 4%? Per my forecast, unfortunately, we will not. It’s more likely that we’ll go back to 6%. That will be the new normal, bouncing around 5.5%-6.5%.”