Home prices seen rising, renters see purchase prospects fade: NY Fed survey

18 Apr, 2022

U.S. households expect home prices and rents to rise sharply this year, and while growth in both are then seen slowing, renters see their chances of ever owning a home fading fast, according to a new survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Home prices are expected to increase 7% in the next year, but 2.2% annually on average over the next five years as mortgage rates are seen accelerating, the survey published Monday shows.

Meanwhile rents are expected to rise even faster, jumping 11.5% over the next 12 months and increasing 5.2% on average each year for the next five.

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Last year respondents to the same survey had expected a 5.7% rise in home prices and a 6.6% rise in rents in the year ahead.

The bottom line for renters was stark: they reported seeing just a 43.3% likelihood of ever owning a home, down from 51.6% in 2021 and the lowest reading since the survey began in 2014.

The Federal Reserve is raising interest rates to cool inflation that is at a 40-year high. Mortgage rates already have risen in anticipation, with the average 30-year fixed rate to 5% last week, up nearly two percentage points since late last year.

An industry survey released earlier Monday showed confidence among U.S. single-family homebuilders falling to a seven-month low in April as rising home-borrowing costs and snarled supply chains boosted housing costs and kept some first-time buyers out of the market.

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