Only 12% Expect Value of Their Home To Increase In Next Year

Confidence in the short- and long-term housing market remains at or near all-time lows.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 12% of U.S. homeowners now expect the value of their home to go up over the next year, down four points from last month and just above the record low of 11% reached in July.  In surveys for over two years prior to that time, the number who expected their home values to rise during the next year remained largely in the low to mid 20s.

Thirty-eight percent (38%) now predict the value of their home will go down over the next year, up six points from October and just short of September’s high of 40%.  For much of 2009 and 2010, this finding was in the 20s but began climbing into the 30s this past spring. Forty-nine percent (49%) of homeowners think their house’s value will stay about the same over the next 12 months. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Looking at the value of their home five years from now, 35% say it will go up. That’s down from 41% in October and ties the all-time low first reached in June.  This finding was over 50% for much of 2009 and 2010.

Sixteen percent (16%) of homeowners think their home’s value will go down over the next five years, slightly more optimism than has been expressed in recent months. Thirty-eight percent (38%) expect the value of their home to be about the same in five years’ time, and another 12% are undecided.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls).  Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 677 U.S. Homeowners was conducted on November 18-19, 2011 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.