Market Watch

Wondering what’s really going on with the housing market these days?

One local expert, Ken Johnson, a real estate economist with Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business, has the scoop.

Johnson, the author of “Where Are We Now With Housing: A Report,” notes that propertyappreciation is slowing. His report, which “investigates and compares the current status of U.S. housing at a national level with that of housing at the peak of the last cycle in July 2006,” concludes that housing prices are currently 7.3 percent above their long-term pricing trend. 

“All evidence is suggesting that the national housing market is peaking,” Johnson says, according to a press release. “However, this time around, from a national perspective, things should turn out quite differently.”

His research is based on a national composite of housing prices, along with estimates of the downward pressure on demand for homeownership. 

He notes: “It looks like we’re in for more of a very high tide, as opposed to a tsunami, as residential prices peak in this latest cycle. At a minimum, we can expect flatter housing price growth. At worst, we could experience price declines slightly below the long-term pricing trend.”