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Home Purchase Sentiment Inches Up, Remains Low

Home purchase sentiment is down on an annual basis and remains relatively flat month over month. The good-time-to-sell-rough-time-to-buy feeling remains relatively strong among consumers, however the Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index indicates some optimism from those considering buying in coming months. The experts at Fannie Mae say concerns about the coronavirus Delta variant, as well as inflation, could be negatively affecting consumer confidence.

Overall, three of the index's six components increased month over month, while the other three decreased. Most notably, a greater share of consumers believes it's a good time to buy a home—though that population remains firmly in the minority at only 32%—while the ongoing plurality of respondents who expect home prices to go up over the next 12 months declined to 40%, down from last month's 46% but still well above the 24% of consumers who believe home prices will decline. Year over year, the full index is down 1.8 points [1].

"The HPSI remained relatively flat this month, suggesting to us that the continued strength of demand for housing and favorable home-selling conditions may be offsetting broader concerns about the Delta variant and inflation that have negatively impacted other consumer confidence indices," said Mark Palim, Fannie Mae VP and Deputy Chief Economist. "Most consumers continue to report that it's a good time to sell a home—but a bad time to buy—and they most frequently cite high home prices and a lack of supply as their primary rationale. However, the 'good time to buy' component, while still near a survey low, did tick up for the first time since March, perhaps owing in part to the favorable mortgage rate environment and growing expectations that home price growth will begin to moderate over the next twelve months."

The full research report [2] is available on FannieMae.com. Below are some of the key findings from the report, which covers August.

According to the researchers at Fannie Mae, the HPSI distills information about consumers' home purchase sentiment from Fannie Mae's National Housing Survey [3] into a single number. The HPSI reflects consumers' current views and forward-looking expectations of housing market conditions and complements existing data sources to inform housing-related analysis and decision making.