Fifty-nine percent (59%) of American homeowners expect the value of their home to go up over the next five years, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Only 10% think their home’s value will go down, and 21% say it will stay the same. Ten percent (10%) are undecided.

Investors are even more bullish, with 66% saying their home values will go up in the next five years, compared to 43% of non-investors.

But homeowners are less optimistic about the short-term. Only 17% say their house will be worth more within the next 12 months. Twenty-four percent (24%) say it will be worth less, and 52% expect it to be worth about the same amount. Seven percent (7%) are not sure.

This comes following a year when nearly half the nation’s homeowners (46%) say their home is worth less today than it was a year ago. Thirty-five percent (35%) say its value is roughly the same. Just 16% say the value has gone up in the past twelve months.

As a result, just 61% say their houses are still worth more than the amount they owe on their mortgages. Twenty-six percent (26%) say their homes are worth less, and 13% are not sure.

Friday’s government report that over half-a-million jobs were lost last month has pushed consumer and investor confidence down to new record lows.

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Sixty-five percent (65%) of men and 53% of women expect their homes to be worth more in five years than they are today. But just 21% of men and 13% of women expect those values to be higher within the next year. Nearly one-quarter of both groups think their houses will be worth less in the shorter time frame. Forty-seven percent (47%) of men and 55% of women think their home values will be largely unchanged over the next year.

Whites are much more confident than African-Americans about the long-term housing market. Just 39% of blacks think their homes will be worth more in five years, compared to 62% of whites. One-third of blacks (33%) say their homes will be worth about the same amount in five years’ time, but only 20% of whites agree. The two groups are much closer in their views of the housing market one year from now.

Nationally, housing prices peaked in 2005 and began declining in 2006. With many houses now back at early 2004 values, experts disagree on when the bottom in the market will be reached.

Seventy-seven percent (77%) of Americans say now is not a good time for someone in their area to be selling a home, which suggests none of them will be putting their houses on the market. Eleven percent (11%) think it’s a good time to sell, and 12% are undecided.

The Federal Reserve recently proposed a $600 billion plan to reduce mortgage rates, and now the Treasury Department is considering a plan to push interest rates down to an historically low 4.5% to encourage home sales. Prior to the announcement of the Fed plan, some analysts expected housing prices to fall as much as another 20%.

Rasmussen Reports will release its findings on the Treasury plan tomorrow.

Sixty-three percent (63%) of all adults continue to believe that buying a home is the best investment most families can make in spite of the country’s current economic problems, driven in large part by the collapse of the housing market. Twenty-one percent (21%) say it’s not the best investment for most families, and 16% are undecided.

In late September, just after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the first burst of publicity about Wall Street’s problems, 66% of Americans said buying a home was the best investment for most families.

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