Many homeowners believe that now is a good time to sell, they also feel that it is a bad time to purchase a home.

The good news is that people still think it’s a good time to sell a house. The bad news is that they don’t think it’s as good a time to buy one because of concerns over rising home costs and mortgage interest rates, according to a Fannie Mae national housing survey. “A survey-record share of consumers – particularly homeowners and higher-income individuals – expect mortgage rates to increase in the next 12 months, likely owing to signals that the Fed will raise rates to slow the pace of inflation,” Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae senior vice president and chief economist, said. “High home prices continue to be the most commonly cited reason by consumers for their belief that it’s a good time to sell (and a bad time to buy) a home; notably, the ‘good time to buy’ sentiment among renters dropped to a new survey low. This suggests that homeowners and higher-income groups may recognize the importance of getting ahead of the rising rate environment, while renters are keenly feeling the double constraint on home purchase affordability of rising house prices and rising interest rates.” Duncan added that the company’s home purchase sentiment index (HPSI) managed to increase moderately in February, though it still remains slightly lower on a year-over-year basis.  “Continued negative perceptions around homebuying conditions were offset in part this month by consumers’ increased sense of job security, which we believe is likely due to labor market tightness and declining COVID case counts,” he said. “However, with recent geopolitical events creating additional economic uncertainty – including likely increasing inflationary pressure – we believe the additional headwinds will compound existing affordability constraints to further soften mortgage demand in the coming year.”

Source: National Mortgage Professional