Americans ready and willing to buy, but seller sentiment remains negative
A study by the Mortgage
Bankers Association shows that prospective home buyers believe that given
today’s affordable home prices and low interest rates, now is a good time to
buy. However, potential sellers are nearly unanimous in reporting that it
is not a good time to sell a home, citing difficulty in finding buyers at
desired sales prices.
The study utilizes 30
years of data from the University of Michigan’s Survey of Consumer Attitudes to
examine consumer attitudes toward homeownership before, during, and after the
most-recent recession to see if consumer sentiment changed toward home buying
and selling.
Key findings from the
study include:
- Despite high unemployment, slow economic
growth and other problems plaguing the economy, almost 80 percent of
American households believe that now is a good time to buy a home.
- Negative home-selling sentiment is strongly
related to difficulty in finding buyers at desired sales prices, as well
as the large overhang of mortgages past due or on foreclosure.
- Over the next five quarters, positive
home-buying sentiment is forecast to remain around current and long-run
average levels. In contrast, positive home-selling sentiment is forecast
to remain around current, historic-low levels. This suggests that selling
sentiment and, hence, market activity, will remain sluggish in the near
term.
To obtain a copy of the
report, visit www.housingamerica.org.
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