Fannie mae: us consumers undeterred by rising mortgage interest rates

The share of respondents who believe interest rates will go up over the next year increased another 5 percentage points to 62 percent, the highest level in the survey's three-year history. Consumers also expect home prices to climb 3.9 percent on average over the next 12 months, holding steady from the May and June survey results. At the same time, the share of respondents who say it is a good time to buy a house increased to 74 percent, while the share that says it's a good time to sell a house increased to 40 percent, matching the survey high.

The share of people who say home prices will go up in the next 12 months fell 4 percentage points from June's survey high to 53 percent, while those who say home prices will go down reached a survey low of 6 percent.  

The average 12-month rental price expectation fell to 4.2 percent, a 0.4 percent decrease from last month.  Fifty-four percent of those surveyed say home rental prices will go up in the next 12 months, a 2 percentage point decrease from June's survey high. Forty-five percent of respondents think it would be easy for them to get a home mortgage today, a 2 percentage point decrease from last month.

The share of respondents who said they would buy if they were going to move decreased slightly to 64 percent.

At 40 percent, the share of respondents who say the economy is on the right track increased 2 percentage points from June.

The share of people who expect their personal financial situation to get better over the next 12 months fell 3 percentage points to 43 percent.

The share of respondents who say their household income is significantly higher than it was 12 months ago remained steady at the survey high of 26 percent.

At 30 percent, the share of respondents who say their household expenses are significantly higher than they were 12 months ago fell 6 percentage points from last month.

"Consumers have taken the interest rate rise in stride. Expectations for continued improvement in housing persist, and sentiment toward the current buying and selling environment is back on track from its dip last month," said Doug Duncan, senior vice president and chief economist at Fannie Mae.

"These results are consistent with our own analysis of previous housing cycles, which finds that interest rates and home prices are not strongly correlated."