Dreaming of a quick turnaround
My house may be down in value now. But buddy, just you wait until June.
That’s one way to read the latest Zillow.com survey, which found a whopping 70 percent of homeowners surveyed across the U.S. believe their castles will either rise in price or at least hold their value over the next six months.
Only 30 percent think their home’s value will go down.
It’s consistent with other surveys that have found similar delusions among many homeowners, such as the belief your house is increasing in value even as the rest of the market is declining.
This bullishness about the real estate market’s near-term prospects is admirable.
But it seems pretty clear we are stuck at the bottom of a pretty nasty ditch – one that’s going take more than six months to crawl out of.
Still, the Zillow.com survey did find signs that homeowners, despite their hopes for a quick turnaround in the real estate market, may be more accurately assessing the market’s current sorry state.
More than half, or 57 percent, now acknowledge their home lost value this past year. That’s up from 38 percent in the second quarter.
In reality, 76 percent of all homes across the country lost value, Zillow.com reports.
But not everyone is looking at the numbers the same way.
Northeasterners seem to have the most accurate view of the current real estate market.
Our proud region scored a relatively low 3 on Zillow.com’s “misperception index.’’ By contrast, the folks out West in foreclosure country – states like California and Arizona have been hammered – were much farther off the market, nearly topping the index with a score of 13.
Who knows, maybe we just have a better eye for real estate. Or maybe the bad weather here just makes us all that more cynical and grumpy.
