Roseville, Calif. – The forecast for housing and the economy and how consumers feel about these topics has been fluctuating over the past few months but the longer term trend does remain positive according to mortgage giant, Fannie Mae’s most recent housing survey.
In the Fannie Mae survey, conducted last month, 50 percent of those responding expect home prices to rise in the coming month and they believe home prices will go up in the next year. The percentage does not seem overwhelming but in their January survey the same question only garnered a 43 percent who believed prices would increase. The February survey pegged the 12-month home price change to be 3.2 percent. In addition, when asked if this is a good time to buy, 68 percent of those surveyed responded yes which was an increase of 3 percent from the previous month.
With 50 percent of the survey respondents indicating they believe home prices are going up there are obviously those out there who still have concerns about the housing market. The percentage of respondents who believe it would be easy to get a mortgage dropped 7 percent from January’s high of 52 percent. In addition the number of people who think the economy is headed in the wrong direction increased.
Other survey highlights included:
- The share of respondents who say mortgage rates will go up in the next 12 months increased by 1 percentage point, to 56 percent.
- The average 12-month rental price change expectation increased from last month to 4.3 percent.
- Fifty-one percent of those surveyed said home rental prices will go up in the next 12 months, an increase of 3 percentage points from last month.
- The share who say they would buy if they were going to move fell 4 percentage points to 66 percent, and those who say they would rent increased to 30 percent.
- The percentage of respondents who expect their personal financial situation to get better in the next 12 months decreased slightly from last month, to 43 percent.
