"Twenty-one percent of U.S. adults believe it is a good time to buy a house, down nine percentage points from the prior low recorded last year. The 2022 and 2023 readings are the only times that less than half of Americans have perceived the housing market as being good for buyers in Gallup’s trend since 1978," the poll said.
The results from April’s poll are the worst recorded by Gallup since they began collecting data on people’s perception of the US housing market in 1978, when 53% had answered positively.
In addition, those polled are more pessimistic when it comes to the prospect of a price drop in the housing market, with only 19% believing that prices will decrease, whereas 56% say they will increase and 25% think no changes will be observed.
The overall pessimism can be attributed to both high acquisition prices, and higher interest rates which combined are making mortgage payment less affordable, the poll showed.
Nonetheless, investing in real estate is still viewed by Americans as the best long-term investment, well ahead of stocks, gold, and other commodities, the poll said.
The poll was conducted via phone interviews from April 3-25 among random sample of 1,013 US nationals throughout the entire country. The margin of error is +-4%, with 95% confidence level.