Housing Confidence Down; More Americans Say ‘Bad Time’ to Buy Home
Fannie Mae, Washington, D.C., said its Home Purchase Sentiment Index decreased by nearly three points in December, as more Americans felt less comfortable about buying a home.
The Index fell by 2.7 points to 83.5, resuming its recent downward trend after November’s slight uptick. Fannie Mae attributed the decrease primarily to a 12-percentage point decrease in the net share of Americans who said it is a good time to buy a home, to 11 percent, a new survey low.
“Consumer attitudes regarding whether it’s a good time to buy a home worsened significantly in the last month, as well as from a year ago,” said Doug Duncan, senior vice president and chief economist with Fannie Mae. “Although home price growth slowed in 2018, the cumulative impact of sustained, robust increases in home prices outpacing income growth likely helped drive the share of consumers citing high home prices as a primary reason for a bad time to buy a home to a survey high.”
Other survey data:
–The net share of Americans who say it is a good time to buy a home fell 12 percentage points from last month to 11% and is down by 13 percentage points from a year ago.
–The net share of those who say it is a good time to sell a home rose 1 percentage point to 36% and by 2 percentage points from a year ago.
–The net share of those who say home prices will go up fell 2 percentage points to 31%, declining for the third consecutive month. This component is down 13 percentage points from a year ago.
–The net share of Americans who say mortgage rates will go down over the next 12 months remained unchanged at -56%. This component is down 4 percentage points from a year ago.
–The net share of Americans who say they are not concerned about losing their job increased 2 percentage points to 79%. This component is up 11 percentage points from the same time last year.
–The net share of those who say their household income is significantly higher than it was 12 months ago fell 5 percentage points to 19%. This component is up 3 percentage points from the same time last year.
