Fifty-five percent of Americans say
they expect home values to rise over the next 12 months, further showing
that consumers are becoming less fearful about jumping back into the
real estate game, according to Bankrate’s latest monthly Financial
Security Index. Nine percent of Americans say they think prices will
fall, and 27 percent believe values will stay flat.
"It appears that Americans' love affair with real estate is back,"
says Greg McBride, senior financial analyst for Bankrate.com. "Even
though the housing bust shows that housing prices don't just go straight
up, people just don't have the same risk aversion to real estate and
home ownership that they do to stock ownership."
Bankrate’s July index showed that Americans prefer real estate over
stocks as a way to invest money they don’t need for 10 years. The
decrease in foreclosures and still-low mortgage rates have been two
factors helping home values to recover, says William Delwiche, an
investment strategist for Robert W. Baird & Co.
"We got past that wave of the foreclosure crisis and banks trying to
dump all their homes on the market," Delwiche says. "Lower mortgage
rates have had an undeniably positive effect on not just household
balance sheets, but also the housing market generally. It makes it much
easier to buy a house if you're so inclined."
Source: “Survey: Americans upbeat about home prices,” Bankrate.com (Sept. 2013)