The Colorado Association of Realtors recently released its Residential Housing Report, which provides a year-end view of the real estate market all across Colorado. Simply put, there was a lot of good news to share. Looking at some of the key metrics in the Colorado Real Estate Market Overview, the following data points were encouraging:

• The number of property listings sold in 2012 was 85,069, an increase of 15.4% over the 73,739 listings sold statewide in 2011;
• The median sales price of a Colorado home in 2012 was $220,000, an increase of 10.1% over 2011; and
• The average number of days on market for a Colorado property listing was down 19.3 percent from 114 in 2011 to only 92 days in 2012.

It’s also worth noting that Colorado real estate indicators for the fourth quarter of 2012 were even a bit stronger. It would be great to a rally extend into 2013, and that raises the question: what is expected to happen in 2013 with the real esate market? In that regard, I thought it might be helpful to gather a few posts to see folks on the national level are saying.

Over at Fox Business, a recent post examines the what to expect in the 2013 housing market. According to the author, experts expect that interest rates for mortgages will rise above record lows reached in 2012, but they will nonetheless remain fairly low in comparison to past decades. Home pricing indexes are also expected to continue on an upward trajectory in 2013. If that occurred, rising prices might not only provide incentive for developers to build more homes but also allow some current homeowners to rise back above water and encourage them to sell. The author also noted that housing inventories fell more than 40% across the nation since 2007. If home prices continue to rise in 2013, inventories might also increase, thereby further bolstering the real estate market. The post also mused on the future in 2013 of the federal interest rate deduction for homeowners as well as national foreclosure and refinancing activity. The author concluded that, “while investors may still be leery of hopping back into the market, housing starts, prices and confidence are on an upward trend and the tide may be turning this year to favor homesellers.”

In a Kiplinger post entitled Housing Outlook 2013: Home Prices Get a Lift, the analyst there opened with a hopeful thought: “the housing market is finally, firmly on the path to recovery.” Looking at the past year across the U.S., residential real estate sales increased across all regions and all price categories. Sales of existing homes and condos rose by 11% in 2012 to 4.75 million. And, the post noted that the National Association of Realtors expects sales to rise to nearly 5.1 million in 2013. While other market observers agreed home prices will keep rising in 2013, they actually disagree how much. While some forecasts are at the higher end with an expected overall gain of about 5% in 2013, Kiplinger believes a more modest 1% or 2% hike in prices will occur.

Other interesting sources providing their own 2013 outlook on the real estate market:

• Outlook Bright For U.S. And International Real Estate In 2013
• Clear Capital: Housing Recovery Set to Continue Throughout 2013
• The Housing Market’s Long-Term Silver Lining

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