High home prices and mortgage rates are continuing to constrain affordability in housing markets nationwide. As a result, consumers’ perceptions on home buying and selling have further diverged.

Fannie Mae‘s Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) —  which tracks the housing market and consumer confidence with selling or buying a home — declined by 1.2 points in May to 65.6. The index is down 2.6 points compared to the same period last year.

Four of the HPSI’s six components decreased month over month in May. Most notably, the component polling consumers’ belief that it’s a “good time to buy” neared its survey low, while the “good time to sell” component increased to its highest level since July 2022.

“As we near the end of the spring home buying season, the latest HPSI results indicate that affordability hurdles, including high home prices and mortgage rates, remain top of mind for consumers, most of whom continue to tell us that it’s a bad time to buy a home but a good time to sell one,” said Mark Palim, Fannie Mae’s vice president and deputy chief economist.

According to the survey, only 19% of consumers believe it’s a good time to buy a home, while 65% believe it’s a good time to sell.

The majority of consumers expect that both home prices and mortgages will either increase or remain the same over the next year. About 81% of renters responded that it would be difficult to get a mortgage today, another survey high, Palim noted.

Affordability struggles have been a recurring hurdle for buyers. Black Knight‘s recent monthly mortgage monitor report noted that tightening credit availability, elevated rates, inventory shortages and strengthening home prices are adding to the affordability challenge.

Since the start of 2023, inventory has deteriorated in 95% of major markets, according to the report. 

It now takes 34.2% of the median household income to make principal and interest (P&I) payments on the median-priced home purchased with 20% down and a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. 

In addition, the price strengthening that occurred nationwide this spring has erased more than 60% of the priced declines seen late last year, according to the report.

As a result, the price strengthening at the current rate of growth would fully erase those corrections by mid-2023, Black Knight said.