David Lereah, National Association of Realtors' chief economist, predicts that 2004 will be another great year for home sales with 5.8 million existing home sales and nearly 944,000 new home sales, making it the third best year of record for home sales.

Lereah says he believes 5.89 million existing homes will be sold this year, up 5.8 percent from 2002's 5.5 million sales, making 2003 another record breaking year for existing home sales. He also says that new home sales will likely increase by 8.2 percent, creating 1.02 million sales, breaking previous records.

The national median home price is also expected to jump in 2004 from the current price of $169,000 to $193,800 and Lereah thinks interest rates will average at around 6.7 percent.

Buying now may be cheaper than putting it off until next year, especially if this information proves to be correct, and Lereah is rarely off the mark when it comes to predicting real estate trends.

-John Mudd