Buyers Join Builders in Dour Outlook for U.S. Housing Market

(Bloomberg) -- 2019 is shaping up to be another lackluster year for U.S. housing, based on sentiment among prospective buyers and builders.

Lender Fannie Mae’s home purchase sentiment index dropped in December to 83.5, the lowest in almost two years.

Four in 10 Americans saying it’s a bad time to buy a home, the highest on record back to June 2010. Attitudes “worsened significantly,” Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae’s chief economist, said in a printed statement, citing “robust increases in home prices outpacing income growth.”

Separate data issued last month showed builders have also soured on the outlook. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index for December dropped to 56, the lowest since 2015.

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