We saw a 14% decline in existing home sales (sales of resale homes) in 2022...

Existing Home Sales in 2021 = 1,347

Existing Home Sales in 2022 = 1,159

With many homeowners having bought with or refinanced to long term mortgage interest rates below 4%, it seems likely that plenty of homeowners will not want to sell in 2023 based on mortgage interest rates alone.

After all... if you bought a home in 2015, refinanced in 2021 at 3.5%, and now have the possibility of selling, paying off that 3.5% mortgage and taking out a new mortgage at 6% or higher... would you?

Plenty of homeowners will sell because they are moving out of the area, because they really need to move into a larger home or really need to downsize... but I think there will be an overall decline in resale home sales this year.

How low will it go?  Will we see as few as 1,100 existing home sales this year?  As few as 1,000?

If you are looking to buy a home in 2023 -- and you're not planning to buy in one of the area's new communities -- keep in mind that resale listings might be coming on the market a bit less frequently than last year.