Americans think mortgage rates could increase past 8% in the next 12 months

Per NY Feds

Americans aren't too optimistic about the future of mortgage rates as they expect it to blow past 8% in the next 12 months. This was compared to the 11.5% in February of last year.

Regarding real estate for investment or personal use, the New York Feds also found that there was a decrease in people thinking it was a good idea to buy property in their own state. This saw a decline from 71% in Feb 2022 down to 68.4% in Feb 2022.

Despite this, there is an expectation for home price growth to decline over the next 12 months to 2.6%. This was a sharp decrease from the previous 2022 numbers at 7%.

The survey also found that renters started being slightly more hopeful of owning a property in the future. In 2022, 43.3% of them thought they would own a home in the future, and this year, the number increased by slightly over a percentage.

Now, almost half of the renters think that they could own a home in the future. This year's numbers saw 44.4% of them thinking they might be able to purchase a property.

Toward the end of February, US home sales were down by 36.9% year-over-year in January, reaching its 12th consistent monthly decline. This resulted in a new all-time low in just 12 years.

Existing home sales dropped to just 4 million units in January, which was its lowest level since October 2010.

Median home prices increased by 10.2% in 2022, according to the National Association of Realtors, but KPMG economists think that 2023 could see a 20% drop in home prices. The economists estimate that the largest declines can be felt in Boise, Los Angeles, Pheonix, and San Francisco.

See flow at unusualwhales.com/flow.

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The New York Fed