Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
More homeowners might be ready to move, helping to relieve the critically low inventory situation that’s been blamed for a recent slowdown in home sales.
Fannie Mae’s latest Home Purchase Sentiment Index provides the evidence for this, showing that the amount of consumers who believe now is a good time to sell has reached close to its all-time high.
The index, which is a measure of about 1,000 consumers’ attitudes toward housing, jumped 1.2 points in August to a score of 88. That amounts to a year-over-year increase of 21 percentage points in the number of consumers who see selling as being favorable. The index’s all-time highest record is 88.3 points, set in July of this year.
In contrast, the number of consumers who believe now is a good time to by has fallen by 5 percentage points, representing a new low. The number of those who look favorably on buying is down 16 percentage points year over year, Fannie Mae reports.
“In the early stages of the economic expansion, homeselling sentiment trailed homebuying sentiment by a significant margin. The reverse is true today,” says Fannie Mae chief economist Doug Duncan. “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.”
Here are some additional findings from Fannie Mae’s August sentiment index reading:
