Home shoppers will likely have more urgency in the new year, wanting to buy before home prices rise even more.

Home prices are edging up in most markets, and buyers are taking notice. Buyer surveys recently have shown that home shoppers expect home prices to continue to inch up, and they want to cash in before they rise too much higher.

“Every single thing about housing is flashing green” with household formation rising, inventory falling, and affordability hovering at record highs, James Dimon, chief executive of J.P. Morgan Chase told CNBC last month.

In 2013, rising rents are expected to push more renters to buy, The Wall Street Journal reports. Also, investors who’ve had a big appetite for housing in recent years may start to decrease their share in some markets that have seen prices rise, such as Phoenix, and focus on other markets still in recovery mode, like Chicago and Atlanta.

“Rising prices could eventually encourage more sellers to put their homes on the market, which would help boost demand even further,” The Wall Street Journal reports.

To meet the expected increase in demand in 2013, some real estate companies are going on a hiring spree. For example, Redfin says it plans to increase its 400 agents nationally by 50 percent by the end of January after having to send about half of its referrals to other companies earlier this year because demand outstripped its supply of agents.

Source: “2013: How Rising Prices Could Boost Housing Demand,” The Wall Street Journal