A new Gallup poll finds that two-thirds of adults feel priced out of the U.S. housing market, with a record low of 30% saying they will buy a home in the next five years.
The public opinion firm reported Wednesday that 23% of nonhomeowners expect to purchase a house in the next 10 years and 45% say homeownership is “not for the foreseeable future.”
Among those responding to earlier surveys, a historic high of 81% said it was a good time to buy a home in 2003, and no fewer than 41% of respondents from 2013 to 2018 expected to own one in the next five years.
In a summary of the findings, Gallup cited the 2009 housing market crash and a pandemic-era surge in home values and interest rates as factors in declining homebuyer sentiment.
“While home values have come down slightly from their 2022 peak, they remain well above levels from a decade ago,” said Jeffrey M. Jones, Gallup’s senior editor. “Combined with elevated interest rates that make home mortgages more expensive, many prospective homeowners are priced out of the market.”
This year’s survey found that 62% of adults reported owning a home compared with 34% who said they rent. That’s similar to the counts in recent years but down from 70% and higher who reported owning a home between 2005 and 2009.
Gallup noted that the cost of homeownership, including a down payment, is increasingly the biggest obstacle for survey respondents.
Among renters, 68% said they couldn’t afford a house or lacked sufficient funds for a down payment. That’s up from 45% who said the same the last time Gallup posed the question in 2013.
Gallup conducted a randomized national telephone survey of 1,006 adults from April 1-14. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
