With undeniable technological progress happening almost every day and with all the economic factors booming and/or going in or out of the recession, it’s getting harder and harder to predict the property values and property market outlook for the upcoming year.

And while most of the things stay local and are heavily dependent on the way some financial and economic indicators are handled country-wise, there are some things that are relevant to everyone on the global scale.

In this article, we turn your attention to some of the biggest challenges homeowners are facing in 2018.

Maintenance Costs Going Up

It turned out that somehow we are ending up as victims of technological progress we are so fond of. Utilizing number of contemporary features and practices while constructing the house has to be followed by appropriate tech know-how on how to fix things if they get broken.

This lack of knowledge also translates into not being able to predict our maintenance schedule and costs accordingly.

Needless to say, with so few experts in the field that are practically able to fix things around the house, costs of maintenance will ultimately go up as more and more innovations are introduced inside the house.

Property Prices Going Up

Last year we witnessed growing price rates of properties globally. But, is that trend about to continue in 2018 also? Here in Australia we saw a struggling property market, particularly in WA.

By what’s being said by lots of real estate agents and experts in the field, prices of properties are expected to rise in the year we are in, but at a steadier pace.

What does this mean for homeowners looking to buy in 2018? This recovering property market has made many homeowners list their properties for sale. However, a lot of homeowners are making a loss due to their financial need to sell the properties.

For all of those who were thinking of upgrading to a larger house or buying a new one for the family, this is a great time to buy. With that being said, it might be much more worthwhile for them to renovate the existing house rather than buy a completely new one.

Putting all thetraditional budget rules aside, this is also supplemented by the predictions that American Federal Reserve will bring interest rates up several times during this year. Rising interest rates will most probably be driven by languishing inflation rate of 1.3%, which is well below of predicted 2%.

Rising interest rates will drive mortgage rates above also, which will result in people paying down the mortgage not willing to sell their properties because they will be aware of the fact that properties will rise in cost elsewhere, just like their own property did.

Urbanization

With more and more people flowing into urban conglomerations all throughout the world, it is getting crowded and possibilities to have a big, yet not to practical home are less. Proper usage of space is becoming a commodity nowadays and people are looking into ways to land a deal for a smaller house, which will translate into lower maintenance costs at the same time.

Constant population shifting is quickly changing demographics of urban areas and homeowners will need to adopt new sentiments when building, buying, or even renovating a home.

If you are ready to sell, request an appraisal and get the ball rolling!