Consumers remain positive about housing market

Consumers remained optimistic about the housing market in August, according to a new report by Fannie Mae.

The Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index fell 1.5 points to 85 in August after reaching an all-time high in July. However, the index was still up 4.2 points over the same time last year, according to a Fannie Mae news release.

“Consumers have a fairly optimistic 12-month outlook on housing at the end of the summer home-buying season, supported by increased job confidence and more favorable expectations regarding their personal financial situations compared with this time last year,” Doug Duncan, senior vice president and chief economist at Fannie Mae, said in the news release. “The return to a slight upward trend in the HPSI during the spring and summer is, thus far, in line with our forecast, which calls for 4% growth in home sales in 2016 to the best level since 2006 and continued improvement for 2017.”

The Home Purchase Sentiment Index  distills information about consumers’ home purchase sentiment from Fannie Mae’s National Housing Survey into a single number. The National Housing Survey polled 1,000 Americans by telephone to assess their attitudes toward owning and renting a home, home and rental price changes, homeownership distress, the economy, household finances and overall consumer confidence, according to the release. The survey was conducted Aug. 1-18.

According to the release, some of the major findings of the August report were:

• The net share of Americans who said it is a good time to buy a house rose by 1% to 34%.

• The net percentage of those who said it is a good time to sell fell by 5% to 15% from an all-time high in July.

• The net share of Americans who said home prices will go up fell 6% from last month to 35%.

• The net share of those who said mortgage rates will go down over the next year fell 2%, after increasing for the past three months.

• The net share of Americans who said they are not concerned with losing their job rose by 4% to 73%.

• The net share of Americans who said their household income is significantly higher than it was 12 months ago fell by 1% to 10%.

For more information about Fannie Mae’s August index and survey visit http://www.fanniemae.com/portal/about-us/media/corporate-news/2016/6439.html.

By |2019-11-25T07:53:49-06:00September 20th, 2016|Financial Services|0 Comments

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