Confidence in housing doubled back in August toward the all-time high in the Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index® (HPSI), with home sellers’ optimism rebounding from July. The HPSI overall posted 88.0 in August, 1.2 percentage points higher than the month prior and moving toward the Index’s record high, reached for the second time in June.
The share of homebuyers surveyed for the Index who believe now is a good time to buy fell five percentage points to 18 percent, but the share of sellers surveyed who believe now is a good time to sell rose eight percentage points to 36 percent. The discrepancy is predominantly due to home prices, says Doug Duncan, chief economist and senior vice president at Fannie Mae. Forty-eight percent of both homebuyers and sellers surveyed anticipate home prices will rise.
“In the early stages of the economic expansion, home-selling sentiment trailed home-buying sentiment by a significant margin,” Duncan says. “The reverse is true today. The net good time to sell share is now double the net good time to buy share, with record high percentages of consumers citing home prices as the primary reason for both perceptions. Such a sizable gap between selling and buying sentiment, if it persists, could weigh on the housing market through the rest of the year.”
Source: Fannie Mae
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