WASHINGTON–The Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) declined 1.5 points to 85.0 in August.
Four of the six HPSI components decreased during the month, most notably the share of consumers who expect home prices to go up in the next 12 months and the share who say now is a good time to sell a home, Fannie Mae reported. Those two indexes decreased six and five percentage points in August, respectively.
Those findings come at the same time more consumers are reporting a positive employment outlook from the previous month. Those reporting significantly higher household income fell one percentage point. Overall, consumer housing sentiment remains positive and bodes well for continued growth in housing activity, Fannie Made said.
“Consumers have a fairly optimistic 12-month outlook on housing at the end of the summer home-buying season, supported by increased job confidence and more favorable expectations regarding their personal financial situations compared with this time last year,” said Doug Duncan, senior vice president and chief economist at Fannie Mae, in a released statement. “The return to a slight upward trend in the HPSI during the spring and summer is, thus far, in line with our forecast, which calls for 4% growth in home sales in 2016 to the best level since 2006 and continued improvement for 2017.”