House prices are stable---they’ll increase and decrease marginally

You might hear people freaking out asking if the housing market is in a bubble. The term housing bubble describes a period of skyrocketing home values. Prices go up and up until—pop! The bubble bursts and home values plunge. That would be scary. But it doesn’t look like that’s happening.

It's true that home values experienced rapid growth following the impact of COVID-19—but that spike started softening in the middle of 2022. Home values began hitting double-digit annual growth in mid-2020 and mostly kept up that trend until 2022. And now we’re back down to single-digit annual growth—along with slight declines in some markets. But there are still no signs of prices crashing.

Will It Be Cheaper to Buy a House in 2023?

There are mixed feelings about what home prices will do in 2023. Houses probably won’t be much cheaper than they’ve been in the past few years—but they’re at least unlikely to shock anyone with rapid increases or decreases.

Experts at the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) actually predict home prices to go up by 0.3% compared to 2022. Meanwhile, Freddie Mac and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) expect home prices to drop by 0.2%—or as much as 15%. But again, there are no signs of rapid decreases. And minor price fluctuations shouldn’t really influence your plans one way or another.