Yes, it is quite hard to tell what the price will be by next year since we will be experiencing some forks before the end of the year. A few months ago, I did not expect the price to be as high as it is right now. So it is possible to be even higher by next year; some say it may reach $10000 already. The popularity of bitcoin has drastically increased. Just by December, I expect there to be a price increase for about to $7000 I guess. We can only speculate, and this is just my prediction as well.
In my opinion, in the long run, the price of BTC on 2018 will rise twice from it current value. Most experts agree that ingenious technology behind virtual may have broad applications for cybersecurity, currently posses one of the biggest challenges to the stability of he global financial system. Perhaps bitcoin speculators are betting that there were always be a consortium of rogue states allowing anonymous bitcoin usage to exploit it.