What will the 2022 housing market look like?

The Covid-19 pandemic upended the home-buying process. Historically-low mortgage rates coupled with an inventory shortage created a red hot market, with houses selling within hours of being listed, often for well over asking price.

No one knows exactly what the future has in store. But housing experts tell CNBC Make It that in 2022, buyers can expect similar trends to the past two years: elevated prices, low inventory and fast turnaround.

That said, although it will continue to be a sellers market — home values are expected to increase by double-digital percentage points, Zillow predicts — it won’t be quite as wild as it was this year, says Skylar Olsen, principal economist at Tomo, a home-buying app.

“None of us can promise that [finding] housing will be easy,” says Olsen. “But it feels reasonable to promise that it will be easier than this past year.”

With that in mind, here’s what you need to know if you plan to buy a house in 2022.

In fact, the number of homes actively listed for sale fell to a record low at the end of November, CNBC reports. Though there will likely be more listings in the spring and summer, as is typical, it is unlikely there will be enough to meet demand, according to Zillow research.

“The gap shrunk in 2021 and will likely shrink again in 2022, but the housing shortage will be a defining feature of the market once again next year,” read Zillow’s 2022 housing outlook.

The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates a few times in 2022, which means mortgage rates will likely rise. Both Redfin and Realtor.com predict a 30-year-fixed mortgage rate will reach 3.60% by the end of 2022, compared to an average of 3.30% now.

That’s not necessarily bad news for buyers, Olsen says. The “silver lining” of higher mortgage rates, she says, is that fewer speculative buyers will be in the market, because there is less money to be made. That could help the average person.

“When you have higher interest rates, it becomes more of the people who buy homes just to live in them,” says Olsen. “That’s something the market will benefit from, coming back down to sanity.”

Potential buyers can expect bidding wars on many homes, particularly in the spring and summer. While no one can predict exactly what will happen, the trends listed above mean prices will continue to climb. In fact, Zillow predicts home values will rise by 11% in 2022 — not as much growth as in 2021, but still substantial.