More Americans See Home Prices Declining Over the Next Year

American’s confidence in the future value of their homes continues to sink as a record high 40 percent expect their homes to be worth less in a year from now according to the latest Rasmussen Reports poll.

Since April 2009, that number has ranged from 19 to 37 percent making this latest survey the highest level of pessimism to date. Last month, 35 percent of the homeowners surveyed felt the same way.

Thirteen percent of the Americans surveyed believed their home values would increase in the next year, the same as last month. Forty-five percent believed their homes would be worth about the same amount over the next 12 months, which was down from 48 percent last month.

Homeowners also grew pessimistic over the long term values of their homes after two months of increasing optimism. Asked if they thought their home’s value would be higher in five years, 36 percent believed that their home's value would be higher. That was down from 40 percent in last month’s poll and only one point above the lowest survey posted in the last two years.

By comparison, in 2008 after the Wall Street financial meltdown, 59 percent believed their home would be worth more in five years and throughout 2010 between 41 percent and 55 percent of homeowners believed their homes would be worth more in five years.

Thirty percent of the homeowners believed their home’s value would be the same in five years, down from 32 percent in last months poll, while 24 percent expected their homes to be worth less over the next five years, up from 20 percent last month

For the fourth consecutive month, less than half of the American adults surveyed believed that buying a home was the best possible investment for a family. Only 48 percent of American adults believed that buying a home was the best possible investment, up from July’s all-time low of 43 percent.

Twenty-nine percent did not think that buying a home was a good investment, down from last month’s 36 percent and 23 percent were undecided.

Seventy percent of the adults polled believed that now is not a good time to sell a home in their area while 12 percent thought it was. Nineteen percent weren’t sure.

Tags: Rasmussen Reports, homeowner’s confidence, home values, increased value, worth less, pessimism

Source:
Rasmussen Reports