Poll finds lack of confidence
A new poll finds 56 percent of Americans "don't believe their home will be worth less in five years." To put that differently, 44 percent of Americans believe their home will lose value over the next five years. That's an astonishing number. It means that many Americans don't believe the current housing downturn is going to be followed by an upturn, at least not any time soon.
Where the common image of our current predicament is that we've walked down into a valley, many people apparently don't see the hill on the other side.
The AOL/Zogby Real Estate Survey has a number of other grim findings:
-Twenty-two percent of Americans say they would lose their homes if they lost their job, even briefly. Forty-three percent say they spend more than 30 cents of every dollar they earn on housing costs, a higher share than the federal government considers affordable.
-Twenty-nine percent of Americans know someone who has lost their home to foreclosure.
- Fifty percent of respondents in the Northeast believe home ownership is not attainable for "most" people. In a nation with a home ownership rate approaching 70 percent, that isn't the kind of confidence you'd like to see.
The online survey sampled 6,678 adults in February. Visit AOL for complete details.
Enjoyed this post? Get blog updates delivered to your reader. Click here.
Comment
Permalink
Email
Well, it's good to see at least 44% of Americans have finally realized that the boom days are over and we are in for many, many years of declining home values. Not sure what the other 56% are thinking.
Unfortunately, it's not just declining home values that people need to worry about during these trying times. People are also struggling with higher energy - oil reached $119 dollars a barrel and the US average for gas is at an all time high of $3.50. With global demand surging and the dollar plunging, $200 a barrel oil and $5 a gallon gas may be right around the corner.
Higher food prices - check - and now we are starting to see food rationing here in the US, a problem that most of us probably think is confined to third world countries where the riots are taking place. Nope, Costco stores in California are limiting purchases of bags of rice. At the rate we are going, this could become common place at your local grocery store.
Stock Market falling - check.
Dollar collapsing - check
Health care costs rising - check
$55 trillion in US government debt - check
A Presidential candidate that has admitted he knows nothing about the economy and will keep us in Iraq for 100 more years if needed - check
Two Presidential candidates that have pledged to raise taxes and turn the US into a socialist country - check
I could go on and one, but I'm starting to get depressed.
Ryan,
As far as I know, neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton have pledged to have the United States government control the means of production and the distribution of goods.
Robert Shiller, the economist who predicting the pop of both the dot-com and housing market bubbles, now says this housing crash may be worse than the Great Depression.
How's that for lack of confidence?
Of course we've walked into a valley. A very broad one. Why would houses start taking off again? It defies common sense and basic finance.
House prices were in a bubble recently. Surely no one still doubts that? And by its very nature, a bubble is unrealistic and unlikely to recur in the exact same area in a very short time. In fact, a look at the history of bubbles shows that it takes quite a long time for people to forget - the next bubble occurs in a completely different area.
Given that, real estate will go back to appreciating on the fundamentals. Which is around .5% a year real. From whatever the bottom number is.
Which is to say, it'll probably be 10 years before we see todays prices even in nominal terms.
I think there is a scenario that they could be down substantially more, Mr. Shiller said during a speech at the New Haven Lawn Club.
The New Haven Lawn Club???
WTF???
New Haven Lawn Club is a nice place
Prices will come down to where prospective buyers will be willing to pay for a residence.... 1st time homebuyers need to continue to wait untill w enear the bottom. Who knows when that might be but If you use 2.5 times your salary to own a home.... and avg salary in Boston is 50k times 2 people - 100k a year then your house should be $250,000.... That would be a reasonable price. I really think you are going to see prices that were 375k be in the 275k range within a year or 2 sooner if this resession has a lot of job losses.
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
Recent Posts
browse this blog
by categoryINside Boston.com