More Americans are ready to go out and buy a home.
That’s good news, on a lot of levels.
The number of Americans that believe it is a good time to buy a home has gone up, according to Wells Fargo’s second annual “How America Views Homeownership” survey.
Last year, 68% of Americans said it was a good time to buy a home. This year, it’s up to 72%.
Right now there are a lot of positive signals coming out of the housing market. The rise in the number of building permits is higher than any time since 2007. Home builder sentiment is up and topped economists’ expectations.
“2015 is proving to be a stronger year for homes sales than 2014,” said Wells Fargo Home Mortgage head of mortgage production Franklin Codel.
Minority home buyers are much more optimistic in the current market, according to the report.
In 2014, only 22% of African Americans said they were looking at buying a new home in the coming two years. That percentage leapt to 37% of African Americans in this year’s Wells Fargo study. Despite being less knowledgeable about home buying decisions, millennials as a demographic are moving closer to being homeowners.
For years in the wake of the financial crisis, home builder stocks lagged the broader market recovery. The same goes for many banks, although a strong start to 2015 have juiced some firms’ stock price.
With the Federal Reserve expected to raise rates later this year, the combination of a robust US economy and relatively cheap debt could drive a boom in the housing market next.