Now Is the Best Time to Sell … or Is it?

Rising home prices and a squeeze on inventory has more millennial homebuyers and potential sellers looking at upgrading their home admitting to being obsessed with timing the market to increase their gains, according to a recent study by ValueInsured.

The study found that among all homeowners surveyed who were interested in selling their home 69 percent said that they were concerned with trying to time the market, an increase of 13 percentage points from 56 percent during the same period last year.

Among those wishing to buy a home this season, the study found that 60 percent said they were concerned with trying to time the market, again reflecting a 13 percentage points increase over last year.

The pressure to time the market was most acute among millennials with 65 percent potential millennial homebuyers admitting that they were more market-timing conscious, up from 45 percent last year. Among millennial homeowners too, ValueInsured’s study found 73 percent millennial homeowners who wished to upgrade but were waiting for better prices admitting that timing the market was key to a better deal.

The study revealed that an eroding preference for owning over renting was one of the many factors that coincided with rising concerns over timing the market due to home prices and rising rates. “Americans, homeowners and non-owners, far prefer owning to renting if given a choice. However, that preference is sliding steadily, even among homeowners,” the ValueInsured study said.

While 68 percent non-homeowners believed that owning a home was better than renting, the data revealed that this was still a 4-point drop from 72 percent expressing the same sentiment last year. The percentage dropped among homeowners too, with 87 percent homeowners believing that it was better to own than rent, compared with 90 percent during the same period last year.

The study found that non-homeowning millennials were more confident that the housing market was moving in a direction that was more favorable to renters than owners, with nearly three in four (72 percent) millennial homeowners surveyed now believing that the housing market favored renting over buying.