WASHINGTON–Home shoppers continue to feel better about their prospects for buying a new house.
Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index for May revealed that five of the six components measured to track consumers’ housing-related attitudes, intentions and perceptions—based on the National Housing Survey—increased during the month.
Where Optimism Was Found
The components that saw more optimism included Buying Conditions, Mortgage Rate Outlook, Selling Conditions, Job Loss Concern, and Home Price Outlook. Change in Household Income was the only HPSI component that decreased this month, according to Fannie Mae.
“The net share of consumers (-48%) who say it is a good time to buy a home increased seven percentage points since last month,” Fannie Mae reported. “The share who say it is a good time to buy increased three percentage points (26%), while the share who say it is a bad time to buy (74%) decreased three percentage points.”
Additional Findings
Additional findings in the May HPSI include, according to Fannie Mae:
- The net share of consumers who say home prices will go up (24%) increased three percentage points since last month. The share of consumers who expect home prices to go up increased one percentage point month over month to 45%, while the share who expect prices to go down decreased 2 percentage points to 21%
- The net share of consumers who say mortgage rates will go down in the next 12 months increased seven percentage points to -2% in May, marking the first month over month increase since the November 2024 survey high.
- The net share of employed consumers who say they are not concerned about losing their job increased five percentage points to 54% since last month, continuing its upward trend since the March 2025 survey low.
- The net share who say their household income is significantly higher than a year ago decreased three percentage points to 9% since last month. Seventy-percent of consumers say their household income is about the same as it was a tear ago.
The full survey can be found here.
