Americans’ interest in buying home at an all-time low

  • By Mary Ellen Podmolik Chicago Tribune
  • Tuesday, April 7, 2015 1:33pm
  • Business

People think it’s a good time to sell a home but they aren’t so keen on buying one.

Only 60 percent of participants in Fannie Mae’s most recent monthly national survey, released Tuesday, said they would buy a home if they were to move, down 5 percentage points from last month to an all-time low since the survey began in June 2010.

Meanwhile, the share of people who said it was a good time to sell a home reached a survey high of 46 percent.

Economists at the agency attributed the falling desire to buy a home to concerns about household income now and in the future. Only 41 percent of the 1,000 consumers surveyed said they anticipated their personal financial situation to improve during the next 12 months.

“We believe the recent setback in consumer sentiment should be short-lived if early signs of income growth bear out and occur in proportion to expected interest rate increases,” said Fannie Mae chief economist Doug Duncan. “Meanwhile, the wait for housing expansion continues.”

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