More Americans plan to buy a home this year despite widespread pessimism about the market, according to a Harris poll commissioned by NerdWallet.

The poll conducted in mid-November found that 15% of the 2,099 surveyed respondents plan to buy within the next year, which was up from 11% in the 2023 poll and the highest percentage since NerdWallet began polling in 2019. 

Slightly more than half of these buyers said they had started looking at homes on listing apps, though only about one-third indicated they had begun saving for a downpayment. 

Prospective buyers hoped to spend on average $259,088, well below the national median sales price of homes of around $420,000.

Polling also indicated pessimism about the market is common. Nearly 70% of the respondents said the housing market has never been worse for buyers. 

“Mortgage rates and home prices have gone up a lot in the last three years, and that terrible combination has discouraged people who want to buy homes,” according to NerdWallet mortgages expert Holden Lewis in the company’s annual homebuyer report.

“The biggest problem is that not enough homes are for sale,” Lewis added. “The low inventory pushes prices upward as buyers compete with one another.”

Buyers faced tough market conditions in 2024. Just 28% of Americans who started the year with the intention of buying a home were successful. Home prices were the most common reason would-be buyers failed last year—18% of them said they couldn’t afford the homes that were available, according to NerdWallet.

In the latest poll, roughly one-third of potential homebuyers indicated that the high cost of living was preventing them from buying a home, whereas nearly a quarter of existing homeowners indicated that high mortgage rates were the biggest obstacle in purchasing a new home.