home shoppers have been so put off by elevated home prices and mortgage rates that buying sentiment has hit an alltime low fannie mae fnma said the agency on monday reported that its home purchase sentiment index or hpsi dropped in october for the eighth time in a row the index stands at 567 this month which is the lowest monthly reading since the index was created in 2011 fannie mae said the 30year fixedrate is averaging at 729 as of monday morning according to mortgage news daily rates have doubled since last year which have added hundreds of dollars in extra monthly costs to buyers fannie mae runs this survey of around 1000 respondents every month to assess their attitudes towards owning and renting a home home and rental price changes the economy and so on in october only 16 of respondents said that it was a good time to buy a home which was a survey low in fact 80 of respondents said it’s a bad time to buy a home which rose from 75 the prior month an alltime survey high even home sellers are feeling gloomy the share of those who believe now is a good time to sell a home dropped to 51 in october from 59 in september “the hpsi reached an alltime survey low this month in line with expectations that the housing market will continue to cool in the months ahead” doug duncan senior vice president and chief economist at fannie mae senior vice president said in a statement “consumers are increasingly pessimistic about both homebuying and homeselling conditions” he added they are also concerned about home prices duncan noted according to the survey the share of those who believe home prices will go down in the next 12 months rose to 37 in october from 35 in september a new survey high this nagging concern offers “further support to our forecast of homeprice declines in 2023” duncan stated fannie mae is expecting home sales to slow in the coming months to fall by nearly 21 by 2023 a majority of survey respondents also expect mortgage rates to go up to 65 in october up from 64 in the previous month got thoughts on the housing market write to marketwatch reporter aarthi swaminathan at aarthimarketwatchcom