Pulsenomics, an independent research and product development firm that “…leverages its expertise in data analytics, opinion research, financial markets and the economy to offer insight and market intelligence to its clients, its partners and the public,” just completed its biannual US Housing Confidence Survey. Survey findings indicate that consumer confidence in the housing market in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Miami, New York City, St. Louis and Washington DC is at a five-year high. Year-to-year confidence in Atlanta’s housing market is the most improved while confidence in Seattle’s housing market is the most “diminished.”
Gen Zers and Millennials expressed buoyed confidence in the housing market as well as their ability to participate in that market. Eight out of 10 Gen Zers and Millennials indicated their confident in being able to buy a house some day, two thirds of them expect to buy a house within five years and six in ten believe that buying a house is “the best long-term investment.”
Based upon homeowner and renter mindsets concerning market conditions, price expectations, affordability and their own aspirations concerning homeownership, Pulsenomics’ US Housing Confidence Survey (HCS) can signal a future change in home prices and transaction volume.
Founder Terry Loeb, also author of the US Housing Confidence Survey and inventor of the Housing Confidence Index, said, “Moderating price growth, falling mortgage rates and solid wage growth in Q1 2019 have stroked housing expectations and homeownership aspirations…recent attitudinal shifts are likely to foreshadow a pick-up in transactions…and, overall, these latest index data point to an improving balance of power between real estate buyers and sellers…”
Loeb essentially called a halt to the year’s-long downward trend in home buying sentiment due to slower price growth and low mortgage rates. “Contrary to some other popular narratives, the majority of Gen Zers and Millennials are looking forward to homeownership, confident that they will be able to afford it and say that when the time comes, they will favor living in suburbia.”
Nobel Laureate and honorary advisor to Pulsenomics, Robert Shiller (S&P Case-Shiller Index) was “struck” by the robust optimism towards homeownership that consumers revealed in this latest US Housing Confidence Survey. Shiller said, “I’d say that households nationwide are showing a healthy optimism, but none of the extreme expectations seen in the run-up to the 2008-2009 financial crisis.”
