Homeowners Still Feel Bullish About Housing Market

The economy has been hard hit by the coronavirus crisis, but confidence in the housing market remains high.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 48% of U.S. homeowners still think the value of their home is likely to go up over the next year. Just nine percent (9%) say it’s more likely to go down, while 37% expect their home’s value to remain about the same. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Fifty-two percent (52%) said the value of their home was likely to go up a year ago, just short of the high of 53% reached in October 2017. But the latest finding remains well above confidence in the housing market throughout the Obama presidency.

Sixty-six percent (66%) of homeowners say their home is worth more than the amount they still owe on their mortgage, a finding that peaked at 69% in November 2018 but is consistent with past findings during the Trump years. Twenty-one percent (21%) say they owe more than their home is worth. Thirteen percent (13%) are not sure.

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The survey of 1,000 American Adults was conducted June 9-10, 2020 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

As more of the country exits the coronavirus lockdown and the stock market climbs to pre-pandemic levels, economic confidence is on the rebound, jumping 16 points from last month to 109.8 in June. This finding is comparable to the level of confidence Americans held just prior to President Trump’s election in November 2016.

Men are much more confident in the housing market than women are, although over 60% in both groups say their home is now worth more than what they still owe on it.

Those under 40 are a bit more likely than their elders to expect their house’s value to go down over the next year.

Blacks (53%) and other minority Americans (58%) are more likely than whites (43%) to think the value of their home will increase during the next year.

Fifty-one percent (51%) of investors say their home is likely to increase in value, compared to 40% of non-investors.

The vast majority of Americans say their home states have begun to loosen their coronavirus lockdowns, and as of two weeks ago, just over half reported that someone in their immediate family has been able to return to work.

Voters come down strongly on the side of small businesses, with most in favor of Trump’s plan to loosen government regulation on them while they recover from the lockdown.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

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