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Poll: Consumers Say 2018 Is the Time to Sell

home-for-sale-sign-three-BHIf a recent survey from Trulia is any indication, there could be some relief for today’s inventory woes on the horizon. According to an online poll commissioned by the site, American consumers are more enthusiastic about selling a home than buying one in 2018.

Just over 31 percent of those surveyed said 2018 would be a better time to sell than 2017. Only 14 percent said it would be worse.

“At a 17-percentage point differential, the home-selling sentiment (net belief that the upcoming year will be better for selling a home than the current year versus those who believe it will be worse) is the second highest gap we’ve seen since we first started asking this question back in 2014,” Trulia reported.

Still, that sentiment won’t immediately translate into more inventory. In fact, only 6 percent of homeowners surveyed said they have plans to sell in the next 12 months.

Optimism toward buying is down, according to Trulia’s poll. Just 25 percent think next year will be a good time to buy—the same share that thinks 2018 will actually present worse buying conditions than this year did.

“This is the first time in the past four years that Americans’ homebuying sentiment (net belief that the upcoming year will be better for buying a home than the current year versus those who believe it will be worse) for the upcoming year has been a wash,” Trulia reported. “As for what this could mean for homebuying activity in 2018, only 10 percent of Americans said they plan to buy a home in the next 12 months.”

Those who do plan to buy in 2018 will likely factor in natural disaster risk when scouting potential properties. According to the survey, 39 percent of Americans are more concerned about the threat of a natural disaster in 2018 than they were this year. In the South, that share jumps to 43 percent.

Trulia’s experts also offered their expectations for 2018, which included a cooling off of home prices on the coasts, a higher demand for homes in the Midwest and South, more millennials joining the market, and a higher homeownership rate overall.

See the full results of the survey at Trulia.com.

About Author: Aly J. Yale

Aly J. Yale is a longtime writer and editor from Texas. Her resume boasts positions with The Dallas Morning News, NBC, PBS, and various other regional and national publications. She has also worked with both the Five Star Institute and REO Red Book, as well as various other mortgage industry clients on content strategy, blogging, marketing, and more.
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