The percentage of US adults who think now is a good time to buy a home - a measure of how people view the housing market, as opposed to how they view the US economy as a whole - has fallen to its lowest level in 45 years, according to research by Gallup. The drop in sentiment comes as mortgage rates and home prices remain high.

In other words, Gallup says, almost eight out of 10 people say now is not the time to buy a home.

The firm surveyed 1,013 people between April 3 and 25 as part of its annual economic and personal finance survey.

Jeff Jones, a senior editor at Gallup, told MarketWatch that the last time Americans felt this negatively about home ownership was in 2022.

"Historically, when people answer that question, they're responding in part to the current housing market and home prices and interest rates, but also, to some extent, to the long-term benefits of owning a home," Jones said." But in the last two years we've seen the opposite - people have been more negative."

Slightly more than half of survey respondents said they believed house prices in their area would rise, down from 70 per cent last year.

The median price of an existing home fell 0.9 per cent from March last year to $375,700 this year. This is the biggest drop since January 2012, when house prices fell by 2% year-on-year. It was also the second consecutive month of house price declines.

To be clear, this is just one company's measure of consumer sentiment. Gallup's reading contradicts Fannie Mae's assertion that Americans are feeling more optimistic about the housing market this spring, namely that consumers are feeling more optimistic about buying a home. The government agency's survey noted that a growing number of consumers expect mortgage rates to fall in the coming year.

Gallup's methodology differs from that of Fannie Mae, which could explain the difference in their respondents' views of the housing market.