Realtors Expect Home Prices To Rise 4% In 2010

This sounds like a triumph of hope over experience.

I remember the chapter in the book Freakonomics about how realtors take much longer to sell their own homes, waiting for the best offers, than they do to sell your home. Why? Because of the incentives built into the realtor-client relationship.

The Washington Post reports:

Home prices are expected to grow modestly next year and sales will keep rising as the housing market continues to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression, the National Association of Realtors said Friday.

Home resales are projected to total 5.7 million next year, up from an estimated 5 million this year. Prices will climb about 4 percent after a projected decline of 13 percent this year, according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the trade association.

"Going into 2010, I anticipate that prices will also begin stabilizing or begin to modestly improve," Yun told the audience at the association's annual conference and expo in San Diego.