This spring’s real estate market is expected to be busier than last year’s

Approximately 63 percent of real estate professionals surveyed by Bright MLS expect this year’s spring housing market to be busier than last spring.

This data comes from Bright MLS, the Mid-Atlantic’s largest multiple listing service (MLS) that serves approximately 85,000 real estate professionals across 40,000 square miles. Previously, Bright MLS was known as MRIS. Over 1,100 real estate professionals in the Mid-Atlantic region responded to Bright MLS’s survey.

Some of the factors that survey respondents said will contribute to a busier spring include an improved job market (44 percent), more first-time homebuyers entering the market (18 percent), more qualified buyers (16 percent), steady home price gains (14 percent) and rising rent costs (9 percent), according to a press release with the findings.

Additionally, even more homebuyers are expected to enter the market this spring than this time last year. Nearly 55 percent of real estate professionals expect there to be more first-time homebuyers entering the market with 45 percent of the first-time homebuyers aged between 20 and 30 years old and 50 percent between 30 and 40 years old.

This year, according to Chairman of the Board of Bright MLS Jon Coile, is the year that Millennials are expected to enter the real estate market with strength.

Currently, the biggest challenge facing first-time homebuyers is the price of a down payment. 38 percent of survey respondents confirmed this. Only 20 percent of survey respondents believe that homebuyers will decide not to purchase a home because of the Federal Reserve rate increase.

The types of listings first-time homebuyers are expected to most search for are those with open kitchens, open floor plans, updated kitchens and bathrooms, and walkable communities with public transportation.

• New Bright MLS Survey Shows Strength in Mid-Atlantic Housing Market [PRWeb]