2025 Housing Market & Economic Predictions Mixed
By Brandon Laam
At MOVER’S CHOICE, we strive to provide relevant and current information to help our moving and storage customers and their insurance brokers navigate the challenging moving landscape. In this blog, we’re taking a look at the housing market and economic predictions for 2025, as well as current moving trends.
Is there good news for movers in 2025? Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors (NAR), thinks so, especially now that the presidential election is over. “We’ve seen after presidential elections—and it doesn’t matter who wins—that there’s usually a slight boost in home sales,” Yun said. “It removes some uncertainty.”
Here are NAR’s predictions on key housing indicators for 2025:
Home Sales to Rise
Yun’s latest forecast calls for a 9% increase in home sales in 2025 and 13% in 2026. “Pending home sales eked out a 3% year-over-year gain in September, he said, a signal that is “maybe the worst is over.”
- Better job numbers and recent gains in the stock market could bode well for the housing market, notes Yun. He predicts an uptick of close to 2 million jobs for 2025 and the same for 2026.
- New and existing home inventory is increasing, and the U.S. population has grown by 70 million from 1995.
Mortgage Rates to Moderate
- The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rates have ranged between 6.08% to 7.44% over the past year. Yun sees the rates for 2025-26 stabilizing at the low end of that range.
- The Federal Reserve is anticipated to reduce its interest rate four more times over the next year.
Yun’s forecast is more optimistic than the Mortgage Bankers Association‘s (MBA) macroeconomic forecast, which predicts a sluggish economy over the next few years.
Economic Growth Sluggish
- While gross domestic product rose 3.2% in 2023, MBA’s outlook is that 2024 will finish at 2.3%, followed by three years of growth of 2% or less.
- Residential investment will be more mixed after hitting 2.5% growth in 2023. MBA forecasts a 0.1% gain in 2024, followed by more volatile growth of 1.1% to 3.3% in the next three years.
Moving the Needle with Multiple Revenue Streams
With all of these mixed indicators, movers will be hoping for the best, but should be preparing for the worst. How can movers be best positioned to weather the sluggish economic conditions? Multiple revenue streams can help fortify moving operations against economic downturns and the off-peak season.
While attending the International Association of Movers (IAM) conference in October, we gathered valuable feedback highlighting the industry’s evolving focus on diversification into specialized operations like senior relocation services, fine arts and antiques moving, and international hauling. These insights reinforced the importance of Movers tailoring their business to meet the unique needs of the population and expand beyond traditional services.
Here are 7 Ways Movers Can Diversify Operations
The key to diversifying revenue is to offer new services that complement the core offering and meet the unique needs of customers. Here are seven avenues worth exploring:
- Delivery Services – for heavy bulk items, such as furniture and appliances can be a great complementary service to existing offerings, and a way to generate additional revenue during slower periods and the off-season. Partnering with local retailers to provide discounted or exclusive, white glove delivery services for customers can differentiate movers.
- Ancillary Services – enhanced moving service offerings, including fine arts custom crating, auto moves, packing and unpacking, and temporary storage solutions for customers in need of storage between moves. These added-value services can position movers ahead of the competition.
- Professional Athlete Relocation – can be a new service to meet the needs of athletes being traded and needing to move cross country within days.
- Hauling – junk, old furniture, trash, recyclable item hauling and de-cluttering services.
- Commercial Moves – corporate office moves require more labor in a shorter timeframe, but can be a lucrative revenue stream in the off-season.
- Specialized Transport and Care – Fine arts and antiques moving involves expertly handling, packing, and transporting high value, delicate items like artwork and collectibles from residence to residence or gallery to gallery. Adding specialized fine arts and antique services to your moving company can attract high-value clientele, differentiate the business in a competitive market and generate premium revenue streams through expert care and niche offerings.
- Portable Storage and Container Transport: Portable Storage/Container movers specialize in delivering, transporting, and storing portable containers, allowing customers to pack and load at their convenience, with services including long-distance relocation, storage solutions, and flexible scheduling. Adding this service attracts a broader customer base with flexible and scalable options and can generate additional revenue streams year-round.
Moving Trends & Home Buyer Profiles Changing
In addition to diversification of services, movers should be on the lookout for trends and proactively tailor services and marketing to address those trends. For instance, more people are moving to cities and single women home buyers are outpacing single men buyers. There is also a surge in families pooling their buying power to purchase multi-generational housing. These are all great opportunities for finding new customers.
If you’d like to see a topic covered in our blog series, please reach out to Lawrie Bolger.
Sources
https://www.nar.realtor/magazine/real-estate-news/whats-next-for-the-2025-housing-market
Written By: Brandon Laam
Brandon has been a transportation insurance specialist for over 10 years, and is constantly striving to create enhanced services for brokers and insureds.
Brandon spearheads the MOVER’S CHOICE philanthropy efforts with Move for Hunger, a national organization working with the moving industry to reduce food waste and fight hunger. Outside of the office, Brandon likes to fish, hike, kayak, garden and read.