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‘Good Time to Sell’ Sentiment Climbing

Fannie Mae's Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) [1] increased 3.5 points in September to 81.0. That's the second consecutive month of increase, showing a rebound from late spring continuing. Three of six HPSI components increased month-over-month, and consumers reported a "substantially more optimistic view of home-selling conditions, expected home price growth, and the labor market, but a more pessimistic view of homebuying conditions and mortgage rate expectations."

Year over year, the HPSI is down 10.5 points [2].

“The HPSI has recovered more than half of the early pandemic-period decline, mirroring the strong home purchase activity of the past few months,” said Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae's SVP and Chief Economist. “Consumers’ home price expectations were up strongly this month, with high home prices playing an increasingly—though unsurprisingly— important role in driving both the increase in ‘good time to sell’ sentiment and the decline in ‘good time to buy’ sentiment. Going forward, we believe the wild card to be whether enough sellers enter the market to continue to meet the strong homebuying demand. The home purchase market requires the proper mix of home price growth and continued economic recovery to achieve sustainable levels of housing activity.”

The HPSI is composite index designed to track consumers’ housing-related attitudes, intentions, and perceptions. Here is a summary of responses to six questions from
the National Housing Survey, according to Fannie.

Read the full research report [2] for information related to methodology and further findings.