The percentage of Americans who said December was a good time to buy a home declined 12 percentage points, according to the latest Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI).
Overall, December’s HPSI fell 2.7 points to 83.5. The HPSI is dropped 2.3 points compared with one year ago.
“Consumer attitudes regarding whether it’s a good time to buy a home worsened significantly in the last month, as well as from a year ago, to a survey low,” Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan said in a release. “Although home price growth slowed in 2018, the cumulative impact of sustained, robust increases in home prices outpacing income growth likely helped drive the share of consumers citing high home prices as a primary reason for a bad time to buy a home to a survey high.
“Meanwhile, consumers’ views on the direction of the economy, a key support for housing market sentiment of late, has softened somewhat from its October high,” Duncan added. “Looking ahead, consumers expect the pace of home price growth to slow over the course of 2019, which may temper growing concern over housing affordability.”
According to December’s HPSI, the share of Americans who said it is a good time to sell a home increased 1 percent, and respondents reporting significantly higher income over the past 12 months fell 5 percent.
The net share of Americans expressing greater job confidence increased 2 percent. The net share of respondents who expect home prices to go up fell 2 percent, and the net share who expect mortgage rates to go down remained unchanged, the HPSI found.