Americans looking to buy a house are currently facing an almost perfect storm of unfavorable conditions. Not only is it hard to find a home, it is also increasingly hard to afford one. Historically high home prices combined with mortgage rates that have surged from historic mid-pandemic lows to the highest level since the early 2000s are causing major headaches for would-be home buyers.
The latest results from Gallup’s annual Economy and Personal Finance poll show that current conditions have really spoiled Americans’ appetite to buy houses. This year’s survey, conducted April 1-22, shows that only 21 percent of U.S. adults think that now is a good time to buy a house – down more than 30 percentage points from 53 percent in 2021 and even further from pre-pandemic levels.
According to Gallup, that’s by far the lowest level of confidence since the question was first asked in 1978. Before 2022, the share of people thinking it was a good time to buy a house had never dropped below 50 percent – not even during or in the aftermath of the 2008 housing crisis.
