According to the Fannie Mae February 2015 Housing Survey, consumer optimism toward the housing market and the economy has reached a new all-time survey high. Forty-seven percent of respondents says they believe the economy is headed in the right direction. Likewise, the share of respondents who believe it would be easy to get a mortgage today rose to 54 percent, another record survey high.
However, though consumer confidence in the housing market is increasing, renters’ confidence is growing more quickly than homeowners’ confidence. According to research from Zillow, homeowners are typically more confident in their local housing market than renters, but that confidence gap has started to narrow. Over the past year, renter confidence has grown more quickly that homeowner confidence. In the survey, 5.2 million of renters says they expect to buy a house this year, in comparison to 4.2. million who made the same claim last year.
“While consumer confidence is increasing, there are still many issues surrounding the housing market that need to be resolved before we can see it fully recover to its pre-bubble levels,” says Abby Shemesh of mortgage note buying firm Amerinote Xchange. “Rental rates have been increasing at a much faster rate than wages, which is a huge problem for renters who are looking to buy a home in the near future. With higher rental rates, it is more difficult for them to save up enough money to afford a down payment on a home, or even build up their credit score so they can secure a traditional mortgage.”
Source: Amerinote Xchange
