Consumer sentiment towards receiving a mortgage and the direction of the overall economy reached new highs in February, according to a Fannie Mae survey.
Fannie Mae's latest National Housing Survey revealed that 54% of 1,000 respondents think it is easier to get a home mortgage today, while the share saying it would be difficult to get a mortgage fell four percentage points, to 43%. Both of these figures are a survey high and low, the Washington-based trade group said.
Since more consumers consider the mortgage process easy now, 65% of February's survey respondents said they would buy a home if they were going to move. Meanwhile, 29% would prefer to rent even though half the respondents think home rental prices will go up in the next 12 months.
Additionally, the share of respondents who say mortgage rates will rise over the next year was 48%. Furthermore, 67% of those polled think it is a good time to buy a house and 40% believe homeowners should consider selling their house, which is down four percentage points from
Since Fannie Mae started this survey five years ago, February marked the first time where the share of consumers who think the economy is on the right track exceeded those who believe it is heading in the wrong direction. For example, 47% are optimistic about the economy now, which is a survey high, compared to 45% that are pessimistic about its current path, a new survey low.
Despite overall optimism about the general economy, 46% of survey respondents do not expect their personal financial situation to get better in the next year.
"Continuing improvement in consumer attitudes in this month's National Housing Survey lend support to our expectation that 2015 will be a year of the economy dragging housing upward," said Doug Duncan, chief economist at Fannie Mae. "We still need to see further growth in consumer optimism toward personal finances and income for more robust improvement in housing market attitudes."
