By Stephanie Guzman, Reporter for Albuquerque Business First:

A crystal ball view of Albuquerque's housing market is just that — a crystal ball. But builders, banks, brokers, buyers and sellers want to know.

To be sure, 13-year real estate veteran Jon Schnoor of The Casa Group has an educated guess. He thinks the metro area will continue to see increased home sales and prices that will go up slightly.

Schnoor is the new president of the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors. He has served on GAAR's board of directors for three years. The group installed its new leadership in December.

Schooner said that the recession had an effect on GAAR membership, but that the numbers have increased steadily since 2011. There are 3,100 members now, and Schooner said numbers are still going up.

How did Albuquerque's real estate market fare last year?

Home prices increased slightly. That’s always people’s first question. We have about 20 percent less homes on the market from a year ago, but higher sales and a slight increase in home prices. The hottest selling homes were in the $200,000 to $250,000 range. The active adult communities are really popular as the population is getting older and, in general, that means there will be demand for single-story homes. When someone like that sells their bigger two-story home, that opens up more options for families who need a bigger house with a big backyard. We're starting to see more millennials become active in the market. Albuquerque is becoming known for its start-ups which is attracting more millennials, and that's good for our economy.

What trends do you expect to see in 2016?

I don't think anyone sees a 15 percent increase in home prices. But 2016 will be similar to 2015, in that sales will increase and inventory will probably remain steady, and hopefully prices will increase slightly.

What are some initiatives GAAR will tackle this year?

Community outreach. Realtor professionalism. And building the brand of the Realtor. Besides being the voice of real estate, we want the public to know the benefits of using a Realtor. We'll be partnering with New Mexico True to develop a new consumer facing website, in an effort to drive homeowners to move to New Mexico. We’re splitting our current website which serves our membership and the public. We're going to split that into a member website and a statewide consumer facing site with that is really modern and inviting for consumers. We'll also be upgrading our lock box program to include the latest technology. We'll be exchanging 16,000 lock boxes in February. Lock boxes are how our brokers access properties, whether they are the listing agent or the showing agent. These new boxes have Bluetooth technology a lot more safety features.