Is consumer confidence returning?

Is consumer confidence returning?

The latest Building Society Association’s (BSA) Property Tracker survey has indicated that consumers are slightly more confident about the future of the housing market, with homebuyers indicating that falling house prices are less of a concern than job security or raising a deposit.
The proportion of those surveyed who indicated that they thought now was a good time to buy remained fairly static, 41 per cent, which was the same as in March.  Just 21 per cent thought that now was not the best time to buy, down from 29 per cent in March.
Though job security, or lack of it, was deemed to be one of the main hurdles for future buyers, the proportion has dropped by 9 per cent to 48 per cent.  Only 19 per cent of respondents were concerned with potential falls in property prices and, of course, the biggest hurdle remains the deposit, a staggering 62 per cent cited this as the main barrier to their prospective purchase, the highest percentage this issue has received since the Property Tracker survey began.
Almost half of the respondents thought that there would be a rise in property prices over the next twelve months with 22 per cent indicating that they thought prices would fall and only 18 per cent indicating that they thought prices would remain the same.
Paul Broadhead, Head of Mortgage Policy at the BSA, commented:
"There appears to be a little less negativity in consumers’ opinions on the housing market, but it remains to be seen whether this is just a blip or the start of a trend. People are a slightly less nervous about the outlook for the jobs market, and are less inclined to think that house prices are going to fall. For the first time since September last year a greater proportion of respondents think that house prices will rise rather than fall in the following 12 months”.
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