Homeowners Views On Housing

With the huge loss of home values it it interesting to see how homeowners have actaully accepted these declines. The OC Register gives us a great table of a Zillow survey in an article titled Homeowners coming to grips with values. Lets take a look -

See chart below for regional comparisons for the Northeast, Midwest, South and West. (In the “home value misperception index” categories, the lower the value number, the closer to reality the perception. An index of zero would mean perceptions were in line with actual values.)

Homeowner perception	U.S.	N’east	Midwest	South	West
My Home’s Value Has Decreased	57%	58%	58%	47%	70%
My Home’s Value Has Stayed the Same	18%	20%	20%	20%	11%
My Home’s Value Has Increased	25%	23%	22%	33%	19%
Actual Percent of Homes that Decreased	76%	71%	73%	70%	90%
Actual Percent of Homes that Stayed the Same (+/-1%)	4%	6%	5%	5%	2%
Actual Percent of Homes that Increased	20%	24%	22%	25%	9%
Q4 Home Value Misperception Index	10	3	5	14	13
Q3 Home Value Misperception Index	16	20	15	13	13
Q2 Home Value Misperception Index	32	29	31	36	23
My Home’s Value Will Decrease	30%	30%	30%	26%	37%
My Home’s Value Will Stay the Same	43%	43%	46%	45%	38%
My Home’s Value Will Increase	27%	27%	24%	29%	25%

At least we are slowing having our perception get closer to the reality. Oh, here is the Zillow page. And the closing paragraph from the article shows we are fighting reality every step of the way -

Said [Stan Humphries, Zillow’s vice president of data and analytics] : “A curious optimism for homeowners when asked about the future – most seem to believe we’ve hit a bottom and the worst has passed. …Unfortunately, the data tells another story. With year-over-year home value losses continuing to accelerate, most areas of the country will see housing values get worse before they begin to stabilize.”