Bad Time to Buy? Increasing Number of Buyers Think So

As home prices continue climbing, the number of confident buyers dwindles. According to a new survey from Fannie Mae, the number of buyers who believe it’s a good time to buy dropped from 59% to 54% last month. While home prices are up by 6% annually, according to CNBC, homebuyers expect these prices to rise even more. Buyers believe these increases will continue on to next year, 41% to be exact, which increased from the previous share of 33%. A meager 17% believe home prices will decrease, which dropped from 26%.

More people do think now is a good time to sell a home, which is an improvement from the first months of the pandemic, when potential sellers didn’t want shoppers in their homes and worried about the state of the overall economy.

If seller sentiment improves substantially, that could help bolster supply and take away at least some of the heat in prices.

“Going forward, we believe the wild card to be whether enough sellers enter the market to continue to meet the strong homebuying demand,” said Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae’s chief economist. “The home purchase market requires the proper mix of home price growth and continued economic recovery to achieve sustainable levels of housing activity.”

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