Home Purchase Sentiment Sees Slight Decline

Fannie Mae's Home Purchase Sentiment Index reported the first decline in the index after three consecutive months of increases. There has been a clear change in homebuyer confidence, with Fannie stating that consumers are reporting more pessimistic outlooks on homebuying conditions. Home-selling conditions and home prices, however, have seen a more optimistic outlook.

"The HPSI appears to have peaked for now as consumers continue to consider how COVID-19 impacts their ability to buy or sell a home," said Doug Duncan, senior vice president and chief economist. "This follows the HPSI's recovery of slightly more than half of the loss experienced during the first few months of the pandemic."

"Drilling down a bit, home purchase confidence has recovered more for homeowners than for renters, in part because homeowners have been less likely than renters to have had their jobs and finances impacted by the pandemic. Interestingly, the gap between the HPSI broken out by the homeowner and renter subgroups hit a survey high in August but, despite narrowing slightly, remains elevated and well above the survey average," added Duncan.

According to the report, 57% believe it is a good time to buy a home, that's down from 60% from the previous HPSI report. The percentage of folks who say it is a bad time to buy a home remained at 35%. The percentage of folks who believe it is a good time to sell a home remained stagnant at 59% however, the percentage of folks who believe it is a bad time to sell a home decreased from 35% to 33%.

Respondents who expect home prices to go up in the next 12 months increased from 40% to 41% and 43% of respondents believe that rates are likely to go up in the next 12 months, up from 32%. Additionally, folks are more concerned about job security with 76% saying they aren't worried about losing their jobs in the next 12 months, down from 79%. Meanwhile, the number of folks concerned about losing their job in the next 12 months increased from 21% to 24%.