(NewsNation) — Homeownership may remain out of reach for many Americans despite anticipated interest rate cuts, according to the results of a Bloomberg Markets Live Pulse survey.
Home prices hit a record high in June even though sales were at their lowest level in six months. Although rising inventory has ignited hope that a buyer’s market is around the corner, many Americans say homeownership isn’t likely to feel accessible on a larger scale for another two years.
About 24% of respondents expect mortgage rates to become more widely affordable in 2025. Meanwhile, more than three-quarters said homeownership won’t feel attainable until 2026 or later.
The poll closed before Friday’s jobs report, which raised fears the economy is headed for a downturn. If the Fed cuts rates as many expect, it would make it easier for households and companies to borrow money, ultimately benefitting consumers. However, any relief in the form of a rate cut isn’t likely to happen until September at the earliest.
Buying a house in the U.S. is less affordable now than at any other time in the past 17 years, according to the real estate data company ATTOM.
The typical costs of a home — including mortgage payments, property insurance and taxes — consumed 35.1% of the average wage in the second quarter, according to the report. That’s the highest share since 2007, up from 32.1% last year.
A smaller share of people who participated in Bloomberg’s survey had an optimistic outlook for the housing market. Of the 489 people polled, 24% said mortgage rates will fall enough to make homeownership more widely available by next year, while 36% said it could happen in 2026. Another 40% said homeownership wouldn’t be more widely attainable for Americans until after 2026.
The majority of respondents, which included more retail investors than usual, said they expect Fed rate cuts to improve their personal investments in the short term, Bloomberg reported. Experts have said the lower interest rates expected in September could give the economy an “artificial sugar high” that would likely wear off in 2025.
Americans also worried about former President Donald Trump potentially winning a second term and whether his policies and tariffs would lead to more inflation and political conflict.
Trump proposed an all-tariff policy that would eliminate income tax during a private meeting with Republican lawmakers in June. Eliminating income taxes and shifting to an “all-tariff policy” would leave a roughly $2.1 trillion gap in government revenue, making daily costs skyrocket, Caleb Silver, editor-in-chief of Investopedia, told NewsNation in June.
The same day he proposed his “all-tariff” solution, Trump told a group of chief executives that he wanted to cut the corporate tax rate by one percentage point to 20%, according to three anonymous sources quoted in the New York Times. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen criticized the suggestion, saying it would “make life unaffordable for working-class Americans.”
According to a study from the Fidelity financial company IPX 1031, more than half of Gen Z and Millennials couldn’t afford a home as of January and said the goal felt out of reach.
About half of Americans said they were waiting for interest rates to drop before buying a home.