According to Fannie Mae’s® Home Purchase Sentiment Index® (HPSI), 70% of consumers say it’s a bad time to buy a home while 25% feel it’s a good time to buy. As the chart below illustrates, this is the highest level reached for it not being a good time to buy in the 3-year period the chart covers. Actually, this is the highest level it’s reached since Fannie Mae began tracking the data in 2010.
Millennials are pessimistic about home buying…
The bottom chart also reflects the sentiment of consumers in the survey about buying a home now but is broken down by age group. This chart shows the net percentage of those saying it’s a “good time to buy” less those saying “it’s a bad time to buy”. The higher the line goes on the chart the more the good time to buy folks outweigh the bad time to buy. As you can see, the black line, which depicts consumers in the 35-44 age group is the lowest on the chart with a net of -68. This is the result of 83% of the consumers in this age group saying it is a bad time to buy and just 15% saying it’s a good time, resulting in a net of -68%.
Seniors have a better feeling about the market…
The red line depicts the sentiment of those 65 years and older and the net percentage there is -26%, so, while the percentage of people that feel now is not a good time to buy still outweighs the ones in this age group that think it is a good time, the resulting difference is about 40 points better than the millennial group.
Home Purchase Sentiment Index® (HPSI)
Source: Fannie Mae
Home Purchase Sentiment Index® (HPSI) – Home buying sentiment by age group
Source: Fannie Mae
