If you are thinking of buying or selling in the near future, you need to consider what the demand will be going forward. . It may seem obvious but if there are a lot of buyers and not enough sellers, simple supply and demand economics will create a situation where home prices have to rise. In the opposite scenario, where there are not enough buyers and too many sellers, prices will have to fall.

Another very important factor is the direction of mortgage rates, so you should make it a habit of watching the financial news and in particular anything related to the Fed and their interest rate decisions. Whether they hike the rate or drop the rate, it will have an impact on your monthly mortgage payment. For example, if you find that home prices have fallen, but rates have risen, you could end up with a higher monthly payment than you would have had with a higher priced house but a lower interest rate.

Make sure that your lender has a good track record of closing deals since TRID (TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule) since that rule was enacted back on October 3, 2015. If you don’t know what TRID is, it is simply a rule that makes sure that lenders are disclosing everything to you as a consumer in a clear and transparent way. This all stems from the debacle in 2008 when so many people got into trouble with their mortgages and lost their homes. TRID requires lenders to clearly show you exactly what all of your fees will be during the mortgage transaction what your monthly payments will be. This way you should not have any nasty surprises in the future. However, you need to be responsible and actually read and understand the documents otherwise TRID will do you no good.

So what does the market in the southern California area look like for 2016? Here is Monica Diaz and Jay Campbell of Keller Williams in the Los Angles area with their take on what is happening in the market.