Dawn of a new day: 2008 economic outlook

A new year always brings with it the hopeful promise of things to come, especially one following the challenging real estate year that was 2007. NAR expects to close 2007 as the fifth best year on record and that’s good news. In Illinois we’ve been averaging a 70 percent homeownership rate and sheer demand is a factor that bodes well for a stabilizing housing market in 2008. Since the 1980s—when interest rates were as high as 18 percent and financing was very creative—people will always need to buy and sell homes. No one has a crystal ball, but IAR does have a new home price forecasting model developed by leading economists from the University of Illinois Regional Economics Applications Laboratory (REAL) to provide some highly credible insights into the Illinois housing market.