The nation’s housing market is slowly taking steps in the right direction – and Americans are taking notice! According to Fannie Mae’s monthly survey, Americans are gaining more confidence in the housing market. Specifically, February’s survey showed that Americans had more confidence that the housing market is finally on the road to recovery.

Just how confident are Americans about the housing market these days?

According to the survey, 48% of Americans believe that home prices will rise in the next year, as opposed to only 10% that believe that home prices will fall. While that isn’t a majority, 48% is the highest that number has been since the Fannie Mae survey began asking the question back in 2010.  Furthermore, 38% of survey respondents stated that they believe that the nation’s economy is headed in the right direction after several years of despondency. While that’s a significant chunk of people, this number is actually lower than it was in January’s survey – when 40% of people believed that their financial situation would get better in the next year.  

Even though Americans may not be so sure as to what the overall economy will bring, they seem to believe that the housing market is on the upswing. After all, the survey also showed that 25% of Americans believe that right now is a good time to sell their home. That’s the highest that percentage has ever been, since the survey was created almost three years ago.

When the survey’s results were released, Doug Duncan, the Chief Economist of Fannie Mae, praised the housing market’s gains, stating, “Despite fiscal headwinds and political uncertainty, consumer sentiment toward housing is robust and continues to gather strength…We expect home prices to firm further amid a durable housing recovery, gradually reducing the population of underwater borrowers and helping to boost the share of consumers who say that now is a good time to sell.”

Reducing the number of underwater mortgages is crucial. After all, it’s a major reason why people aren’t selling their homes. Because of how low home values dropped when the economy crashed, many people owe more on their mortgage than the current worth of their home. That has led to an incredibly low inventory around the country. In some places, the inventory is so low that people are having trouble finding a new home to purchase, even when they are in a position sell – so they’re simply staying put.

But if Americans truly believe that the housing market is improving, it could have a snowball effect. When home values rise, more people with underwater mortgages could soon be a position to sell, creating more inventory and sparking more buyers and sellers to enter the market. That could eventually spark more positive growth in the housing market and encourage those who have been nervous about listing their home to regain their confidence.

Although the survey is less than three years old, the fact that confidence that is at an all-time high gives some hope that the housing market will start to recover even faster. Hopefully, even more Americans will soon have their confidence restored in both America’s housing market and the overall economy.