America’s Views on Owning a Home

A survey released Tuesday by Wells Fargo indicated that owning a home is still important to the majority of Americans.

Wells Fargo’s third annual “How America Views Homeownership” survey found that 93 percent of those polled believe homeownership is an achievement to be proud of, 86 percent say owning a home is a dream come true, and 74 percent of respondents said they believe now is a good time to buy a home.

“Wells Fargo believes it’s important to take time to engage in a collaborative, national dialogue about how lenders and the housing industry best serve a wide range of qualified customers, how our commitment to doing so will impact communities and our country as a whole, and what questions we should address together about responsibly enabling sustainable homeownership,” said Franklin Codel, Head of Wells Fargo Home Lending.

As for the growing sentiment in the mortgage industry that millennials are not interested in homeownership, the survey results seem to indicate the contrary. According to the survey, 40 percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 34 said they “definitely will” or “probably will” buy a home in the next two years, which was nearly double the percentage of the general population (22 percent) that plans to become homeowners over the same period.

Survey respondents said they believe that homebuyers should know what they are getting into, however; 91 percent of respondents said they believe the homebuying process should be thorough enough that borrowers know what they are getting into. Almost the same share (90 percent) said they believe that they buyer should have to prove they can afford a loan.

The top three factors preventing homeownership, according to the survey, were not being able to save money for a down payment (23 percent of respondents), not wanting to make a long-term commitment (20 percent), and not a good enough existing credit rating (17 percent).

While the majority of respondents viewed owning a home as a dream come true, at the same time, more than three-quarters of those polled (78 percent) agreed that “Having to go through the homebuying process is a hassle.”

Ipsos Public Affairs conducted the study of 3,400 survey respondents during May 2016, according to Wells Fargo. Click here to view the complete survey results.