Americans who think it is a good time to buy a home hit a record low in 2022, according to Gallup’s latest poll…(Gallup)
- 33% of U.S. adults say it is a good time to buy a house, down 23 percentage points from a year ago
- This is the first time the figure has been below 50% since the question was first asked in 1978.
Young people are helping to lead this decline as only 25% of 18-24-year-olds believe it is a good time to buy a house, down from 42% a year ago.
- Only 28% of 25-54 year old’s believe it is currently a good time to buy and 35% of older Americans think it is a good time to buy.
Regionally, the South was the most optimistic region with just 32% of southerners believing now is a good time to buy. The Midwest was the second most optimistic at 29% followed by the East (28%) and the West (27%).
Poor people are, interestingly enough, more optimistic than the rich about buying with 33% of people making less than $40k thinking it is a good time to buy versus just 27% for people making over $100k.
- Only 29% of those who make between $40-100k thought it was a good time to buy.
Looking ahead, 70% of Americans think home prices will increase over the next year which probably explains why 54% of Americans pick housing as the best long-term investment beating stocks (24%) and gold (15%). FYI Bitcoin was not one of the options.
With home affordability close to all-time lows it is not surprising that people are not feeling like it is a good time to buy. On top of it, home prices continue to rise along with mortgage rates. Considering there seemed to be no real downturn before 2008 highlights the impact that the crash had on people’s view of real estate. This is the way markets are supposed to work. When prices reach levels consumers aren’t comfortable with they stop buying. This did not happen in 2008. It should also be noted that the fact that most Americans believe housing is too pricey is probably a sign we are close to the end of this current growth cycle.