While the real estate market is finally showing signs of cooling after a year of skyrocketing home prices and bidding wars, desirable metros across the U.S., including in Florida, Washington and Massachusetts, can expect a big year in 2022.

For the past 100 years, the suburbs of King County have grown at a faster rate than the city of Seattle. However, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, the suburbs’ long run is officially over — at least for now. 

According to a new survey, More than 40% of employed Americans are willing to take a pay cut or accept a new job with a lower salary to move to a more affordable location.

While buyer preferences for more space — both inside and outside the home — remain and supply chain issues continue to stifle home construction efforts, other factors, such as the potential increase in interest rates, are expected to change the game in 2022.

The decline in mortgage rates prompted an uptick in refinancing, with government refinances increasing more than 20% over the week, MBA associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting Joel Kan said in a press release.

While real estate markets across the country slowed down in November around Thanksgiving, such was not the case for Washington, where buyers and sellers were unusually active. Based on the latest report from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (MLS), numbers for new listings, pending sales and closed sales were comparable to year-ago totals, while prices rose just over 15%.

With home prices continuing to reach new heights  across the country, many potential homebuyers are seeing the mobile-home market in a brand new light as single-family home prices become less affordable for young and middle-class buyers. 

As more money is being spent on real estate than ever before, the booming market is on pace to shatter records this year, according to a recent CoreLogic report.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently announced its 2022 conforming loan limits (CLL) for conventional loans acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“Despite higher mortgage rates, purchase applications had a strong week, mostly driven by a 6% increase in conventional loan applications.” — MBA associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting Joel Kan

Prices of Seattle waterfront homes are steadily rising, particularly in King County, where waterfront property has been historically expensive. 

Nationally, investors bought a record 18% of homes sold in the third quarter of this year, and they are increasingly turning to single-family homes, according to Redfin. 

The home remodeling platform Houzz has compiled their 2022 trend forecast: a list of 10 interior design predictions.

Home prices in Seattle saw little change from August to September, an indication of a seasonal slowdown in the local market. Earlier this year, Seattle-area home prices saw month-to-month increases between 3-5%, according to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index. 

“If I had to choose only one word to describe September 2021’s housing price data, the word would be ‘deceleration. Housing prices continued to show remarkable strength in September, though the pace of price increases declined slightly.” — S&P DJI managing director Craig Lazzara.

While the housing market may be hotter than usual, the shift toward seasonal norms is starting to show and could benefit both buyers and renters.