By Conor Dougherty | The Wall Street Journal
The strength of the housing recovery was a welcome surprise this year. If forecasters are correct, the sector is finally ready to start picking up the rest of the economy in 2014.
That’s because the market is changing in important ways.
Experts such as Jed Kolko, chief economist at real-estate website Trulia, expect the mix of buyers in the coming year to shift to a combination of families moving up or buying their first homes—rather than the cash-only investors who have been driving sales in many cities.
Mortgage rates, which declined to historically low levels earlier this year, should continue to tick up. The Federal Reserve said last week that it would start pulling back on a bond-buying program that has helped keep a lid on long-term rates.
