Is it last call for America’s housing boom?
That renewable resource of desperate buyers with the will and the means to compete for a dwindling number of homes is shrinking; homeowners with low rates locked in are more reluctant to sell, knowing they’ll pay more to borrow for their next purchase; first-time buyers are increasingly getting priced out of the market. Most of that record-setting quarterly performance happened before rates started to rise, inflation got worse, and a sentiment shift truly took hold. A recent Fannie Mae survey found “only 24 percent of consumers believe it’s a good time to buy a home, with similar levels of pessimism expressed by nearly all of the demographic groups surveyed.” It’s pretty much the definition of a market failure if three of four buyers of any product feel bad about their choice, yet it’s still the only product they can buy.
