--- title: 'Buyers and Sellers Agree: The Housing Market Is Pretty Rough Right Now' description: 'Survey results released by Fannie Mae show that both homebuyers and sellers agree: The housing market is pretty rough right now.' authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 501 covers: - Housing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Julia Glum role: Managing Editor url: https://money.com/author/julia-glum/ bio: Julia Glum joined Money in 2018 and specializes in covering financial trends that affect everyday Americans' wallets. She also writes Dollar Scholar, a weekly newsletter that teaches young adults how to navigate the messy world of money. education: University of Florida at_money_since: 2018 articles: 453 covers: - Housing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - Newsweek - International Business Times - CBS News - Good Morning America - WUSA9 - Pix 11 - The New York Times - Mashable - The Washington Post - CNBC - Politico social: - https://x.com/superjulia - https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-glum published: '2023-03-08T18:31:19.000Z' modified: '2023-03-08T18:31:19.000Z' section: Housing tags: - News word_count: 501 canonical: https://money.com/buyers-sellers-housing-market-pessimism/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Close-up rear view of real estate agent adjusting for sign in front yard of house](https://img.money.com/2023/03/News-Is-It-Good-Time-To-Sell-House.jpg) Presented by: ![](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/17685/971d4710-a188-4b9a-90d5-a887cc13f521.png) Lexington Law’s credit repair consultants will work on your behalf to dispute mistakes on your report. Start repairing your credit today! [Go to LexingtonLaw.com](https://money.com/pr/rabf86210f6e?ap_referrer=%2Fbuyers-sellers-housing-market-pessimism%2F) Americans aren’t feeling good about the housing market, according to a benchmark survey, with confidence plunging back near record lows. ## Credit Repair companies improve your credit so you can apply for a mortgage ### Bad credit can weigh you down. Find out what credit repair can offer you by clicking on your state. [View Plans](https://money.com/pr/y51b8498829e?ap_referrer=%2Fbuyers-sellers-housing-market-pessimism%2F) ## What the research says Survey [results](https://www.fanniemae.com/newsroom/fannie-mae-news/housing-sentiment-returns-near-survey-low-amid-affordability-constraints-and-job-security-concerns) released Tuesday by Fannie Mae, a government-sponsored mortgage corporation, show both homebuyers and sellers are historically pessimistic about the housing market as [mortgage rates](https://money.com/current-mortgage-rates/) start climbing again. - Sellers are losing confidence fast. The share of people who say it’s a good time to sell a home fell 5 percentage points in February, from 59% to 54%. Similarly, the percentage who say now is a bad time to sell increased to 44%, up from 39% the previous month. - On the other hand, only 20% of respondents say it’s a good time to buy, compared to 79% who say it’s a bad time. This marks a slight improvement in the sentiment of homebuyers, though their pessimism remains near the poll's [all-time low notched in October 2022](https://money.com/good-time-to-buy-house-survey/). - “Consumers on both sides of the transaction appear to be feeling cautious about the housing market,” said Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae’s senior vice president, in a [statement](https://www.fanniemae.com/newsroom/fannie-mae-news/housing-sentiment-returns-near-survey-low-amid-affordability-constraints-and-job-security-concerns) accompanying the results. The poll included replies from about 1,000 U.S. adults reached between Feb. 1 and Feb. 19. ## What's going on Duncan, also Fannie Mae’s chief economist, attributes the overall plummet in housing market sentiment to an increase in job security concerns and less favorable conditions for sellers. - In order to curb inflation, the Federal Reserve, the nation's central banking system, has been aggressively raising the interest rates, which has sent mortgage rates soaring and thus boxed out many would-be buyers. - At the same time, the Fed's strategy may be cooling off the once-sizzling job market. Some major employers — [especially in tech](https://money.com/twitter-big-tech-companies-layoffs/) — have laid off workers en masse in recent weeks. [Data from the Labor Department](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm) released Wednesday shows the job market remains resilient overall, but layoffs are beginning to tick up as the number of job openings are decreasing. - Of those polled by Fannie Mae, 55% now say they expect mortgage rates to keep rising — while an increasing share of respondents (24%) are becoming concerned about their job prospects over the next 12 months. ## The takeaway While the housing market is becoming less favorable to home sellers, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a buyer’s market, either. The current state of the housing market is leaving no one in a good position. Mortgage rates are currently in the high 6% range while home prices are historically elevated, pushing overall home affordability to [an all-time low](https://money.com/housing-affordability-lowest-level-in-history/). As a result, many [buyers are hitting the pause button](https://money.com/its-a-buyers-market-so-why-arent-more-people-buying-homes-right-now/), hoping for prices and rates to come back down — and leaving [homes on the market for much longer](https://money.com/homes-for-sale-on-market-longer/). According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, purchase applications are [down 42% right now](https://www.mba.org/news-and-research/newsroom/news/2023/03/08/mortgage-applications-increase-in-latest-mba-weekly-survey) compared to last year. ## Don’t let your credit hold you back ### Is bad credit weighing you down? A team of professionals who focuses on Credit Repair can help get you an accurate credit report. Better credit is possible — let’s get started. [View Plans](https://money.com/pr/vdf79bb33557?ap_referrer=%2Fbuyers-sellers-housing-market-pessimism%2F) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/buyers-sellers-housing-market-pessimism/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Housing", "item": "https://money.com/housing/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Housing Market", "item": "https://money.com/housing-market/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Buyers and Sellers Agree: The Housing Market Is Pretty Rough Right Now" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/buyers-sellers-housing-market-pessimism/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/buyers-sellers-housing-market-pessimism/", "name": "Buyers and Sellers Agree: The Housing Market Is Pretty Rough Right Now", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2023-03-08T18:31:19.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/buyers-sellers-housing-market-pessimism/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/buyers-sellers-housing-market-pessimism/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2023-03-08T18:31:19.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Buyers and Sellers Agree: The Housing Market Is Pretty Rough Right Now", "articleSection": "Housing", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2023/03/News-Is-It-Good-Time-To-Sell-House.jpg", "width": 2880, "height": 1920, "caption": "News-Is-It-Good-Time-To-Sell-House" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adam Hardy", "url": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/#author", "description": "Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. 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