by Mike Colpitts 
An increasing number of consumers feel it’s a good time to buy a home, according to a new Fannie Mae survey. The poll shows growing consumer confidence in housing, with 5 percent more saying it is a good time to buy over May in the national housing survey.
“The share of respondents who indicate that now is a good time to buy has been steadily increasing in recent months, reaching 28% in June, the highest level in over two years,” said Joel Berner, a Realtor.com economist. “This shows that buyers are responding to changing market conditions, namely that for-sale inventory is significantly improved, home prices are flat and price reductions are widespread.
“For those with equity in their current home who are looking to downsize or those with cash on hand (in other words, those least affected by mortgage rates), now is a prime opportunity to get a great deal on a home.”
Fannie Mae looks at six components for the study: Buying conditions; selling conditions; home price outlook (next 12 months); mortgage rate outlook (next 12 months); job loss concern (next 12 months); and change in household income (past 12 months).
“Respondents to the HPSI survey had mixed expectations about where rates will go, with 39% saying they will stay the same, 34% saying they will go up and 25% saying they will go down. The net result of these responses is a more pessimistic view than last month or at this time last year,” Berner said.
Home prices in the Fort Myers area have been declining for nearly three years and are beginning to show stabilization in some market sectors. Growing consumer confidence in housing is particularly evident in single family homes selling for under $350,000, with less price reductions in many areas of the community.
However, the condominium market is still showing larger drops than the rest of the marketplace, especially older condos, which are likely to be impacted by new state legislation to make structural upgrades.
The share of consumers who say it is a good time to sell decreased 2 percentage points month over month to 21%. A majority of consumers (60%) say it’s a good time to sell, while 39% say it’s a bad time to sell.
It’s a buyers market in Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach, Cape Coral and Naples, where purchasers are paying less for homes than two years ago. The survey showed that the share of consumers who expect home prices to go up remained at 45%, while to 22 percent surveyed said they would decline.
The National Housing Survey polled a nationally representative sample of 1,313 household financial decision makers (margin of error ± 3.73 percentage points) aged 18 and older between June 1st and June 17th, 2025.