A majority of respondents continued to view homeownership as a favorable investment and aspiration, according to the most recent Survey of Consumer Expectations from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The survey, which has been issued annually since 2014, polls both renters and current homeowners. It includes questions on home price perceptions, mortgage debt, and intention to move to a new home.

A total of 60.4 percent of respondents said they thought buying a home in their ZIP code was a good investment. This share has been slowly growing since the inaugural survey in February 2014, when 55.7 percent thought homeownership in their community was a good idea.

More than one-quarter of the respondents—26.9 percent—said they considered homeownership in their ZIP code to be neither a good nor a bad investment. The remaining 12.7 percent considered homeownership in their neighborhood to be a bad investment.

Renters were slightly less optimistic but still considered homeownership a good financial move, with 55.9 percent seeing it as a good investment and 15.6 percent seeing it as a bad investment. Respondents with higher household incomes and those who had earned at least a bachelor's degree were more likely to view homeownership favorably.

A total of 72.3 percent of renters responding to the survey said they would prefer to rent as long as they had the financial resources to do so, with nearly half—49.3 percent—saying they strongly preferred homeownership. Another 16.2 percent said they preferred renting, and 11.6 percent were indifferent. The average probability of a renter owning a home sometime in the future was 55.2 percent.

Most renters remained pessimistic about their ability to secure a mortgage, although these perceptions showed some improvement from recent years. A total of 65.1 percent thought it would be difficult for them to get a mortgage, down from 66.8 percent in 2016 and 72 percent in 2014.

About one in five renters—20.1 percent—thought it would be easy for them to get a mortgage, up from 17.6 percent in 2016 and 12.8 percent in 2014. Another 14.8 percent were thought it would be neither easy nor difficult.

Among homeowners, more than half—51.3 percent—said they expect to stay in their home for more than 10 years. Another 21.1 percent said they will likely stay there for six to 10 more years, while 18.6 percent anticipated a homeownership tenure of two to five years and 9 percent thought they would move in less than two years.

The average probability of a homeowner refinancing their property over the next year was 10.2 percent, down from 11.3 percent in 2016. The average probability of a homeowner investing at least $5,000 in their home was 32.4 percent in the next year and 46 percent in the next three years.

Respondents expected the average national rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage to reach 5.61 percent in the next year. They expected the average rate to hit 6.55 percent in three years.

Respondents expected home prices to go up by an average of 5.1 percent over the next year, up 1.8 percentage points from the 2016 survey. The annualized expectations for home price growth five years in the future stood at 2.71 percent.