WalletHub's eight financial predictions for 2018

WalletHub's editors reached out to Director of the JPMorgan Chase Economic Outlook Center Lee McPheters to get his forecast on next year's gross domestic product (GDP), the stock market, home prices, and employment.

A little financial foresight helps consumers understand how they're faring in the economy so they can prepare for the future. That's why for the past six years the financial website surveys more than a dozen economics experts, analyzes big-bank projections and Federal Reserve forecasts, and produces a list of estimates going into each new year.

Here's what Research Professor of Economics Lee McPheters shared in this WalletHub post on Dec. 18, 2017:

Our overall forecast for the nation is steady, sustainable, but unspectacular growth. We expect real GDP growth better than 2.5 percent but under 3 percent. The economy has not posted 3 percent GDP growth in more than a decade, and we do not see anything on the horizon of sufficient impact to change that (including the tax cut, or infrastructure spending as currently envisioned in the Trump budget.)

We follow job growth in state economies month to month. Our forecast is the fastest growing labor markets will be found in Nevada, Utah, Texas, Oregon, and Florida, with Georgian possibly displacing one of these top five job growth states in 2018.

Find out McPheters predictions for the financial health of the average American in 2018, his expectations of the 2018 stock market, and at what level the S&P 500 will finish this year.