One thing has been true about home prices since the pandemic began: They just keep going up across the country. In 2023, this has persisted even as mortgage rates more than doubled from the 3% range to slightly above 8%—and as buying activity collapsed. In July, Fortune’s then-housing editor (and current ResiClub cofounder) Lance Lambert summed up Goldman Sachs’ perspective on the market: Four more years of gridlock? And that was even before the “higher for longer” rates scenario started to sink in.
A quarter later, Goldman is back with an updated forecast, and it doesn’t see an ounce of relief in sight for buyers, although it says the “sharpest declines in housing activity and prices are now long behind us.” But higher for longer rates, higher home prices, and depressed activity? Check, check, and check.
