TRENTON – Homeowners believe the value of their homes will remain the same or fall in the coming year, even though they believe the homes are worth more than when they bought them, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey released Thursday.
The national telephone survey found that even though 53 percent believe their home is worth more than when they originally bought it, 48 percent expect their home to be worth about the same as it is today. Even worse, 35 percent of respondents expected their home values to fall.
Only 13 percent of homeowners expect their home values to rise over the next year.
One in four homeowners in the survey said their home is worth less than when they bought it, while 17 percent say the value is about the same.
The survey also found that:
*40 percent expect the value of their home to go up in the next five years. One in five homeowners – 20 percent- expect their home’s value to go down in that time, for the second straight survey. Thirty-two percent (32%) of homeowners expect values to remain about the same during that time.
Still, 53 percent of homeowners say they believe their home is worth more now than when they bought it.
*79 percent bought their home more than five years ago, while another 17 percent bought their home one to five years ago. Only 2 percent bought their home within the last year.
Those who bought their homes three years ago or longer tend to think their home’s values will remain about the same in one year and in five years, while those who bought their home one or two years ago are less optimistic.
Pessimistic consumers
The recent debt crisis seemed to have influenced some of the pessimistic thoughts. Confidence among Americans in the stability of the nation’s banking industry has hit rock bottom. The COUNTRY Financial Security Index dropped 1.3 points to 62.4 in August, the lowest reading in the survey’s history.
Despite many respondents saying they’re paying about the same in interest as they were last year, they believe they will pay higher interest rates a year from now.
Only 31 percent believe the federal government will be able to contain inflation and keep interest rates down.
The survey was conducted on Aug. 14 and 15 and involved 703 homeowners. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence.
Previous coverage of home sales in N.J.:
http://www.politickernj.com/50136/latest-home-sale-news-mostly-grim-few-bright-spots
