Survey Says: Income, Spending and Housing Confidence on the Rise
Consumers are a bit more optimistic about their household finances, expecting not only household incomes to grow, but also their household spending, according to the results of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Center for Microeconomic Data Survey of Consumer Expectations (SCE) for 2017.
Home owners are breathing a sigh of relief over the news that median home prices across the nation are up 6.2 to 8 percent. 6 to 7 percent is considered an average year-over-year increase.
In an annual survey conducted by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 34 percent of all home buyers in were first time buyers. The average age for repeat buyers has climbed to 45 years old. Buyers of New Construction homes dropped from 29 percent to 16 percent of all home buyers in 2017.
A similar NAR survey cites the typical home seller in 2017 to be 55 years old, with an average stay of 10 years in their home before selling. Significantly, recent time on market plummeted to only 3 weeks, a historic low!
In closing out the year, more consumers are confident they will not miss a minimum debt payment in the next three months; their expectation for more earnings, however, dipped slightly, though remained within a positive range observed since August 2016.
In terms of housing, fewer consumers expect home prices to change—a share also remaining within range, this time observed since mid-2015. Consumers in the South and West, as well as those with a high school education or less and/or an income less than $50,000, were less likely to expect a change.
On the employment side, consumer perceptions of the likelihood of losing a job in the next year fell to its lowest level in four months. Consumer perceptions of an expanding unemployment rate also fell, to its lowest level in 19 months.
Consumer expectations concerning inflation were unchanged.
