Buy a House? Now's Not a Good Time

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 are surging back from their recent lows at breakneck speed are causing a 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 spoilt Americans’ appetite to buy houses. This year’s survey, conducted April 1-19, shows that only 30 percent of U.S. adults think that now is a good time to buy a house – down more than 20 percentage points from 53 percent in 2021.

According to Gallup, that’s by far the lowest level of confidence since the question was first asked in 1978. In fact, the share of people thinking it was a good time to buy a house had never dropped below 50 percent before – not even during or in the aftermath of the 2008 housing crisis.