If you're selling your home or thinking about selling your home, your biggest question is probably "when will prices get back to where they were?"

According to a new study by Moody's and Fiserv the answer, in Virginia, is after 2023. They recently published a study showing, by state, when housing prices would rebound to their 2005-2006 peaks. Virginia is in the worst category in this study with prices not rebounding for over 12 years. If they're right we likely won't even see any sizeable increases over the next five years.

Note that I'm not saying they've got it right. None of the financial institutions or economists did a very good job of predicting what's happened to the economy or real estate in the last few years.

But you should ask yourself, what if...

What if they're right? How does that change the decisions I'm making for myself and my family? If you've been staying in place assuming that a return to higher prices was just a year or two away, do you now just go ahead and sell?

My two cents, for what it's worth, is that appreciation will be miniscule for at least the next three years.

By the way, in case you're wondering, Maryland beat us. Prices there are expected to return to their peak between 2018 and 2022. (If you're curious about any other states, let me know and I'll get you the numbers.)