Fannie Mae’s home purchase sentiment index dropped for the third straight month.
MarketWatch reports that the index fell 1.1 percentage points to 81.7, down from 86.5 in July.
The index comes from a monthly survey of 1,000 people. The survey’s topics include home and rental price changes, the economy, and overall consumer confidence.
“Since July, more consumers, on net, have steadily expected mortgage rates to rise and home price appreciation to moderate,” said Fannie chief economist Doug Duncan in a statement. “Furthermore, consumers’ perception of their income over the past year deteriorated sharply in October to the worst showing since early 2013.”