Early signs suggest consumers may be feeling more hopeful about prices and mortgage rates, and increasingly see 2025 as a good time to buy, new Inman-Dig Insights consumer polling shows.
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Last year’s market proved challenging for real estate agents, to say the least.
A combination of factors, including higher home prices and mortgage rates, low inventory and some homeowners sitting on the sidelines due to an election year led to one of the slowest in recent years for many agents.
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But early indications show that consumers may be feeling a bit more hopeful about 2025, specifically when it comes to home prices and mortgage rates — a good sign for agents.
These findings from the latest Inman-Dig Insights consumer survey conducted in January also suggest that such a hopeful attitude may have a significant impact on consumers’ thoughts about transacting this year.
Greater perceived affordability ahead
Consumers generally feel less certain that home prices and mortgage rates will rise in the next year and more receptive to the idea that they could actually fall in the next 12 months.
- Half of all 3,000 survey respondents to the latest Inman-Dig Insights consumer survey said that average home prices would increase in the next year. But that was down from 57 percent of respondents in April 2024.
- The number of respondents who believe home prices will actually decline in the next year was 19 percent, up from 17 percent in April.
Similar sentiments are brewing when it comes to perceptions about mortgage rates.
- 45 percent of consumer respondents said they think rates will rise in the next 12 months, compared to 49 percent who thought this last April.
- Meanwhile, 23 percent of survey respondents now believe that average mortgage rates will decrease, a modest tick up from 22 percent in April.
Time to buy?
With a new year at hand, consumers are also continuing to warm up to the idea of opening up their wallets to buy a home. The share of consumer respondents who believe that now is the time to buy saw a significant increase in recent months.
- 40 percent of consumers believe it’s “a good time to buy,” up from the 27 percent who felt that way in April.
- At the opposite end of the transaction, the share of consumers who believe it’s “a good time to sell” remained fairly consistent as of January’s Inman-Dig Insights consumer survey results, holding steady at 65 percent.
Not only do consumers increasingly feel that it’s a good time to buy, but nearly half of consumer respondents said it is also feasible for them to do so today.
- 46 percent of consumers surveyed in January said their household is in a good enough financial position to purchase a home at today’s prices and mortgage rates.
- 39 percent said they were not in a financial position to buy today and 16 percent said they were not sure if they were secure enough financially to buy.
Looking ahead to next year, even more consumers feel that there’s at least a good chance they will be in a position to buy a home.
- 48 percent of consumers believe that 12 months from now they will be in a secure enough position financially to buy a home.
- 24 percent are unsure if they will be in a position to buy a property in a year.
- 27 percent believe they still will not be able to buy a home in 12 months — a significant decline from the 39 percent who said they cannot buy a home today.
When consumers took this survey on Jan. 7-8, the market and economy were still riding out the stability that capped off the last presidential term. Today, that landscape looks a bit different with factors like President Trump’s threatened tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China poised to cause spikes in consumer prices across a variety of areas, including new housing if the cost of construction materials from abroad rises as expected.
Still, there are other early signs of the market moving in favor of homebuyers a bit. Close to one-quarter of homesellers cut their asking price in January, according to a report from Zillow, a new high for any January since 2018.
Mortgage rates also dropped slightly last week to 6.93 percent as the Trump administration clarified that a recent executive order would not interfere with the Federal Reserve’s decisions over the movement of interest rates.
In other words, more consumers increasingly believe that there is a pathway for them to transact in this market — and they’ll need an agent to guide them along the way.
About the Inman-Dig Insights Consumer Survey
The Inman-Dig Insights consumer survey was conducted from Jan. 7 through Jan. 8 to gauge the opinions and behaviors of Americans related to homebuying.
The survey sampled a diverse group of 3,000 American adults, who ranged in age from 24 to 65 and were employed either full-time or part-time. The participants were selected to produce a broadly representative breakdown by age, gender and region.
Statistical rigor was maintained throughout the study, and the results should be largely representative of attitudes held by U.S. adults with full- or part-time jobs. Both Inman and Dig Insights are majority-owned by Toronto-based Beringer Capital.