Sixty percent (60%) of American adults say it will take three years or longer for housing prices to recover. That’s up slightly from 57% who thought it would take that long a month ago.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just five percent (5%) expect the housing market will recover within the next year. A month ago, eight percent (8%) were that optimistic.

The Commerce Department reported on Wednesday that housing starts fell 11% in March to the second-lowest rate since the 1940s. The only month with fewer housing starts was in January. An earlier survey found that only nearly two-thirds of Americans think the housing market will improve when the overall U.S. economy gets better.

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Other data released recently showed that Americans are growing more optimistic about short-term prospects for the economy but less optimistic about the long term. Most Americans now believe that today’s generation of children will not be better off than their parents.

Fifty-three percent (53%) expect the stock market will take three or more years to recover. That’s up slightly from 50% in March.

Among investors, 58% believe it will take three or more years for stock prices to recover, compared to 60% who held that view last month. Ten percent (10%) of investors now believe the market will recover within a year.

The Rasmussen Consumer and Investor Index shows that confidence is up since the beginning of the year but still below year-ago levels. Nine percent (9%) of Americans rate the economy as good or excellent while 55% rate it as poor. Twenty-seven percent (27%) now say the economy is getting better while 44% say it is getting worse.

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