Prospective Homebuyers Pulling Back

A poll by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) during Q2 2019 shows that just 12% of prospective homebuyers are planning to buy a home next year, but 20% of those expect the search for a home to get easier. 

The share of adults planning to buy a home over the next year has been cut in half since Q2 2017, when it was 24%. Millennials are the most likely to buy a home at 17%, and are followed by Gen Xers (13%), and Baby Boomers (7%). 

Of those buyers, 58% will be purchasing their first home—a slight drop from 60% in Q1 2019 and a drop from 63% in Q2 2018. 

The NAHB states this is unchanged from 2018 polling data. Also, 67% of respondents expect availability to be harder or remain unchanged, also similar to last year (68%). 

The volume of prospective buyers has hovered around 20% for the past year, but has fallen drastically from Q4 2017 when 34% felt searching for a home was going to get easier. 

Twenty-percent of both Baby Boomers and Gen Xers say the home search will get easier, which was followed by 20% of millennials and 10% of seniors. 

Another way to explore a buyers’ insight on the market, according to the NAHB, is to ask their opinion on the number of homes for sale—specifically those they like and can afford. 

Of the respondents, 27% of buyers reported seeing more homes on the market compared to three months earlier, which is a slight annual dip from 29%.

Generationally, 27% of millennials, Gen Xers, and Baby Boomers saw more homes they both like and could afford, according to the report.  

Affordability continues to cause issues for homebuyers, as the NAHB poll reveals that 80% of buyers in Q2 2019 can afford fewer than half of the homes for sales in their market, which is an annual increase from 76%. Just 20% of respondents can afford the majority of homes available—an year-over-year drop from 24%.