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As one year ends and another begins, the experts on Wall Street are always falling all over themselves to predict the year ahead.

But are those experts really any smarter than people just walking down the street? For years now we've conducted an annual experiment by getting predictions from Wall Street experts and people like you.

Let's start with the stock market. What the heck is going to happen in 2013?

We asked Dr. Richard Sylla, economics professor and Chairman of the Museum of American Finance what he thinks is going to happen to stocks in 2013.

"I'm an optimist. I think the stock market next year may go up about 10% for the year and probably the indexes will set new all-time highs."

That's the expert prediction, what does Main Street say?

"I think stocks will go up 5% this year."

So Wall Street says stocks up 10 percent this year. Main Street says up 5.

Now a toughie... what's going to happen to oil?

"The Energy Information Administration is forecasting oil prices for 2013 are going to be a little lower than 2012... averaging about $88/barrel,” says Sylla.

How does Main Street see it?

"It'll probably be about $120 I think, a barrel."

OK, now one final prediction: housing prices.

Real Estate site Zillow surveyed more than 100 economists, real estate experts, and market strategists. The consensus? Home values are going to go up in 2013, by about 2.5%. Here's a prediction from Main Street.

"I think they're going to go up by 3 percent."

OK... Now we've got our predictions down, both from Main Street and from Wall Street. Meet me here next year, and we're going to see who was smarter. In the meantime, for more information, go to MoneyTalksNews.com and do a search for "2013 predictions."

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