Federal National Mortgage Assctn Fnni Me (OTCMKTS:FNMA) revealed some of the astonishing facts about the housing market demand in its recent survey, the results of which was released yesterday.
Confidence fell despite lower interest rates
The government-owned housing enterprise said that the consumers confidence in the housing market hit an 18-months low even as the mortgage rates have come down to the lowest level since February 2015. Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index showed that the consumers’ outlook towards the housing market dipped 2.5% to 80.2 in March.
Fannie Mae further revealed that nearly four of the six HPSI components registered a decline in March, indicating that the consumers’ confidence in the future of the economy has suffered a pull. Among the HPSI components, the percentage of consumers thinking that it is a good time to sell a home component has witnessed the largest decline of 8%. This component has now fallen to negative 1%.
Two contrasting data
Besides this, the confidence about job security has fallen 7% in March, according to Fannie Mae’s survey. Such an outlook came in sharp contrast to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ report that showed improvement in job creation and labor force expansion during the previous week.
Also, the HPSI’s Household Income component too dipped 4%, underlining the fact that lesser number of consumers acknowledged an increase in their income over the last twelve months. During the release of the results, the company’s senior vice president and chief economist, Doug Duncan, said that the negative outlook about the direction of the U.S. economy has started to reflect in the home purchase sentiment as well. He added that the attitude of the home market consumers underlined the weakening of economic performance in certain industries over the last few months.
The stock of Fannie Mae fell by as much as 3.62% to $1.33 during the last trading session.
