Google Trends: Buyers Interested Despite Declining Consumer Confidence

Fannie Mae says consumers are less confident in a home purchase, but Google Trends show many are still interested. The percentage of respondents to Fannie Mae's survey who think it is a bad time to buy increased from 27% to 38%, but that lagging confidence doesn't mean consumers are closing the doors on purchasing a home. Last week alone, Google searches for “refinance home loan calculator” grew by 4,000%, according to CNBC. Other searches pointed toward interest from first-time buyers, such as “process of buying a house,” which jumped by 950%.

Some of the drop can be attributed to a rise in Covid-19 cases in July and growing concern over more parts of the economy shutting down again. Home prices were also a factor.

“Supply constraints appear to be applying upward pressure to consumers’ home price expectations, which in turn has contributed to both a sharp reversal in optimism about whether it is a good time to buy a home and further improvement in home-selling sentiment,” said Doug Duncan, chief economist at Fannie Mae.

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