Home-buying sound like a good idea?
We’ve written extensively about the difficulty of first time home-buying in 2017. It appears that these issues haven’t gotten better in the last three months, but there is hope on the horizon for homeowners.
According to the National Association of Realtor’s (NAR’s) Housing Opportunities and Market Experience survey, “71 percent of homeowners think now is a good time to sell a home,” up from 61 percent this time from last year and 69 percent last quarter.
Furthermore, the Midwest is leading the charge, with 76 percent feeling like now is a good time to sell their home.
Hopeful guessing
While the data is a good sign, it’s not perfectly reflective of intent.
In the press release for the survey, NAR Chief Economist, Dr. Lawrence Yun said, “there are just not enough homeowners deciding to sell because they’re either content where they are, holding off until they build more equity, or hesitant seeing as it will be difficult to find an affordable house to buy.”
The hope is that this uptick will lead to an increase in the number of houses on the market, which should offset supply issues in the current real estate market.
That’s also a welcome sign to potential buyers, who don’t have a lot of optimism about buying a home.
Renters on the fence
According to the same survey, only 52 percent of renters believe that now is a good time to buy a home. That number has gone down from last quarter (54 percent) and last year (62 percent).
In fact, that confidence number is the lowest it’s been since March 2015, when the survey began asking this question.
In short, potential customers are wary of the process.
There are a few reasons for this lack of confidence. For starters, a lack of inventory continues to impact affordability.
According to the press release, “under half of respondents (42 percent) believe homes are affordable for most buyers.”
Furthermore, one in five buyers would consider moving to a more affordable real estate market, and this is especially true for younger folks earning less than $50,000 annually.
Finally, this whole issue is exacerbated by rising rent prices, especially in East Coast and West Coast metro areas.
Financial insecurity kind of a deal breaker
There’s also a less-than-positive outlook among folks about their financial futures. Only 54 percent of those surveyed feel like the economy as a whole is improving.
That’s down from 62 percent last quarter, a rather drastic drop.
So, as you court potential buyers, especially younger, first-time buyers, they’ll need a lot of coaching and optimism to go through this process. Also, be looking out for an increase in inventory as the right time to court these types of buyers.
#narsurvey
