Most U.S. Residents Say It’s a Bad Time to Buy a Home

Americans are feeling better about their financial situations – but that doesn’t mean they are necessarily ready to make the commitment to home buying. In fact, even as their jobs appear stable and their incomes are the same or better than a year ago, a record high 82% believe it’s a bad time to buy.

That’s the finding of the Fannie Mae National Housing Survey for July, and it’s up 4% from June. “Unsurprisingly, consumers continue to attribute the challenging conditions to high home prices and unfavorable mortgage rates,” said the agency’s chief economist Doug Duncan. And the share of people expecting home prices to keep climbing over the next 12 months has risen month-over-month, adding to the perception houses are unaffordable.

On the flip side, 36% of sellers are sticking with the view that this is not a good time to sell – indicating that the low availability of houses on the market is likely to continue in the near term, Duncan noted.

Consumers appeared to have mixed views on the future direction of mortgage rates, but the net share of those who believe rates will go down during the year rose 3 percentage points. Still, 56% think it would be difficult to get a home mortgage today, compared to just 44% who think it will be easy.

The number of consumers not concerned about losing their job in the next 12 months rose 3% to 80%. There was little change in individuals’ views of their household income. It remained steady for 71% of respondents while, as before, 19% continued to say it had risen and 10% said it was significantly lower.

Despite the reluctance of many potential buyers to test the waters of home ownership at the present time, this is clearly the preference of a majority. Asked what they would do if they were going to move, 67% chose “buy” and just 33% said “rent.”