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Americans Growing Optimistic About US Housing Market - Fannie Mae Study

More number of Americans grew optimistic about the U.S. housing market in September, according to Fannie Mae's National Housing Survey.

The National Housing Survey is a monthly poll that gauges consumer sentiment about the housing market of the country. There was a dip in the sentiment in the past few months, but confidence returned in the month of September as the economy added back more jobs.

"The September National Housing Survey shows a slight recovery in consumer housing sentiment after a two-month setback, bringing us back to the modestly positive trend we've seen over the last year," Doug Duncan, senior vice president and chief economist at Fannie Mae, said in a statement.

The survey that polled 1,000 American adults on the housing market over telephone interviews found 68 percent of the respondents saying that now was a good time to buy a home. The figure is up 4 percent on a month-on-month basis.

Also, 66 percent of the respondents said they would prefer buying a home on their next move - up three percentage points from a month earlier.

The share of respondents that thought it was a good time to sell also increased to 39 percent. The percentage of people that thought getting a mortgage was tough inched down one percent reflecting faith in the borrowing segment. Forty five percent of them said mortgage rates would go up in the next month, which is 5 percent down from a month earlier.

Forty five percent of the people polled also believe that prices will go up in the next 12 months, while only 8 percent thought they would decrease. Fifty Five percent think that rental prices will go up in the coming year.

The optimism wasn't just limited to the housing market. People also grew positive about the economy with 40 percent saying the economy was on the right track. The share of people who thought their incomes were significantly higher than a year ago went up three percent and 41 percent believe their financial situation will get better in the next one year.

"...the return to an upward trend in housing sentiment, combined with this month's positive news on the jobs front, suggests that a broad-based, albeit measured, housing recovery is on track to resume in 2015. The results of the past few months show that consumer optimism remains cautious and somewhat volatile, and we'll likely continue to see bumps on the housing recovery path reflected in our survey results," Duncan added in the statement.

Other experts echo Duncan's views saying that the U.S. economy is bound to improve along with the housing market.

"With the U.S. economy expected to grow more robustly than it has in the past five years and housing inventory continuing to improve" home sales in the country should improve, according to Leslie Appleton-Young - chief economist and vice president of the California Association of Realtors who was quoted by CBS Local on the Californian housing market.

"While the Fed will likely end its quantitative easing program by the end of this year, it has had minimal impact on interest rates, which should only inch up slightly and remain low throughout 2015. This should help moderate the decline in housing affordability we saw occur over the past two years," he added.


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