Dive Brief:

• A survey that real-estate data firm Zillow did in 20 markets for a new index of housing confidence found that about 10% of renters nationally would like to be signing papers for a purchase within a year.
• However, those would-be first-time buyers are looking for the market to offer them opportunities, and that seems to be going the other way.
• It is still a seller's market, with buyers facing tight credit standards, rising prices and low inventories, and Chief Economist Stan Humphries at Zillow said that getting the market to balance buyers and sellers is proving to be "a slow and uneven process."

Dive Insight:

The potential buyers are abundant, with the lenders between them and builders and sellers. Zillow said that if all the people who told surveyors they were confident or somewhat confident that they could make home-buying work were to get financing, there would be 4.2 million first-time buyers in the market.