Fannie Mae: More consumers ready to sell a home

Fannie Mae’s latest National Housing Survey shows more consumers believe it is a good time to sell a home.

The number of respondents who believe now is a good time to sell reached a new survey high of 52 percent.

At the same time, the share who said they expect home rental prices to go up in the next 12 months rose four percentage points to 59 percent.

If housing supply increases and rental costs rise, more potential homebuyers may be encouraged to leave the sidelines, according to Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae’s chief economist.

“These results point to a healthier home purchase market, with more renters likely to find owning to be more cost-effective than renting and more sellers likely to put their homes on the market,” Duncan said.

Other findings were:

• The percentage of respondents who expect their personal financial situation to get worse over the next 12 months fell back to 10 percent – tying a survey low
• The  share of respondents who say their household income is significantly higher than it was 12 months ago fell 1 percentage point to 27 percent
• The percentage of respondents say their household expenses are significantly higher than they were 12 months ago remained at 31 percent.