Dive Brief:

• More consumers than ever think now is a good time to sell a home, Fannie Mae’s May National Housing Survey revealed this week.

• In keeping with the U.S. Department of Labor’s positive jobs report in May, which showed a slight bump in hourly earnings, the number of consumers who told Fannie Mae their household earnings are up jumped by 4% to a near all-time high. And 66% said they would rather buy than rent, up 3% from this time last year.

• The survey also showed that 66% of consumers believe it’s a good time to buy a home and 49% said it’s a good time to sell — an all-time high for the survey. The reason: 49% said home prices will go up over the next 12 months.

Dive Insight:

Consumer optimism about housing is good news for homebuilders. Aside from the potential that more first-time buyers might feel confident enough to make their first home purchases, owners of existing homes are more likely to plant for-sale signs out front, which means they’ll be looking to buy replacement homes.

Still, that activity could be muted if the potential buyers can’t qualify for mortgages. In the survey, 46% said they think it would be difficult to get a mortgage. Those who think it would be easy, on the other hand, increased by 2% to 50%.