NAR’s Jessica Lautz Takes the Pulse of the Real Estate Industry

In this episode of the Top of Mind podcast, Mike Simonsen sits down with Jessica Lautz, Deputy Chief Economist and Vice President of Research at the National Association of REALTORS®, to talk about the big trends shaping the real estate industry.

Jessica shares why NAR expects home prices to edge up over the next year, talks about her model for forecasting mortgage rates (and whether we should expect 8% mortgage rates in the future), and surfaces some surprising trends about millennial homebuyers. She also offers insights from NAR’s study on Adaptive Reuse: how to turn empty office buildings into housing.

Here’s a glimpse into what you’ll learn:

• Why NAR expects home prices to edge up over the next year
• Which stats demonstrate demand has been greater than supply
• Her model for forecasting mortgage rates
• Whether we should expect 8% mortgage rates in the future
• Why NAR uses surveys and focus groups in addition to tracking properties to gain insights into the market, and what they’re learning now
• Surprising trends about millennial homebuyers
• What the current household formation rate means for housing in the near future
• Which stats she looks at that housing analysts don’t normally track
• Insights from NAR’s study on Adaptive Reuse: how to turn empty office buildings into housing
• The dangers of the TikTok housing analysts and why everyone keeps expecting a crash in home prices
• NAR’s view on affordability and the future of housing affordability in the US, and her take on what housing looks like over the next decade

Related to this episode:

• Connect with Jessica on LinkedIn
• National Association of Realtors
• Mike Simonsen on LinkedIn
• Altos Research

The Top of Mind Podcast is produced by Altos Research. Each week, Altos tracks every home for sale in the country – all the pricing, and all the changes in pricing – and synthesizes those analytics to make them available before becoming visible through traditional channels.