Townhall Columnists Scott Rasmussen
The Housing Market Is Depressing America
 Scott Rasmussen
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Apr 20, 2012
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Just 49 percent of homeowners in America now believe their home is worth more than they paid for it.
Rasmussen Reports has asked that question for years, and it has never before fallen below the 50 percent mark. This represents a sea change in personal finances that challenges core assumptions about the way our economy works.
Most Americans were brought up to believe the cornerstone of good financial planning was to buy a home, pay the mortgage on time and watch the equity grow. That doesn't work at a time when home values are declining.
Economists measure the lost equity in housing to be in the trillions of dollars. But the impact on individual families is even greater. Consider this: Four years ago, 80 percent of homeowners thought their home was worth more than they paid for it. That number fell to 62 percent last fall and 49 percent today.
In just four years, roughly one out of three homeowners went from having made money with a supposedly safe investment to seeing all the gains disappear. That's a stunning turnaround for people who thought they were doing the right thing and buying their share of the American Dream.
Adding to the sense of gloom, homeowners don't think we've hit bottom yet. Just 21 percent believe that their home will go up in value this year, while 25 percent expect further declines.
Even looking ahead five years, only 46 percent believe their home will go up in value. Such a low number would have been unthinkable until recently, and it's one reason many homeowners feel trapped.
The housing crisis was triggered by a soft economy, and most Americans recognize that it won't be solved until the overall economy regains strength. They're not looking for a quick fix with some magical new housing policy. Instead, they have serious concerns about jobs, inflation, federal spending and deficits that cloud prospects for a robust recovery.
But while the soft economy was the trigger, most homeowners recognize that the underlying cause of the housing crisis was a corrupt relationship between the federal government, elected politicians and well-connected financiers. While the housing market was collapsing, the financiers were getting bailed out.
Seventy-seven percent have an unfavorable opinion of Freddie Mac, and 73 percent say the same about Fannie Mae. Those two government-sponsored enterprises changed the rules of the mortgage game. One "innovation" was to encourage policies that let people buy a home with no money down. Most Americans reject that type of new math.
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Tags: Budget and Government , Fannie/Freddie , Housing Market , Housing Crisis , America , Housing
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 Scott RasmussenScott Rasmussen is founder and president of Rasmussen Reports. He is a political analyst, author, speaker and, since 1994, an independent public opinion pollster.
Scott founded Rasmussen Reports, LLC in 2003 as a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion polling information. Rasmussen Reports provides in-depth data, news coverage and commentary on political, business, economic and lifestyle topics at RasmussenReports.com, America’s most visited public opinion polling site.
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Erwin44 Wrote:3 hours ago (5:45 PM)
Paying upwards of a quarter million in interest to own a home was based on a premise that no longer exists.
Carrying a mortgage and paying exorbitant interest, fees and closing costs to benefit from the increase in your home's value over time to FUND YOUR RETIREMENT are activities that are based on a premise that no longer exists.
What this all means for the future, I do not know. I own a home and pay my mortgage. Luckily, we did not use our home as a piggy bank so we are not underwater.
We just live there.
So the prevailing wisdom seems to be that you own a home as someplace to live. Not to fund your retirement. Not as an investment. Not as a piggy bank.
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Blair31 Wrote:6 hours ago (3:35 PM)
Instead of bailing out Fannie and Freddie, why not cut them off and allow them to go out of business?
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Think Wrote:7 hours ago (2:33 PM)
OTOH, with housing at (or near) historic lows. this is a PERFECT time to introduce a truly flat tax. Dropping the mortgage deduction normally would cause housing to crash. Well, it's already crashed. And a Flat Tax will get the lobbyists and politicians out of the business of using deductions as favors - and LET THE FREE MARKET WORK. And save us hundreds of billions in compliance and reporting and litigation...
Even Warren Buffet could pay the $1B he owes in back taxes.
Get the government out of our way and we can all get back to productive work. Best way to do that? Flat tax.
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John5103 Wrote:8 hours ago (12:49 PM)
The politicians wrecked the economy and the housing market with their nonsensical fantasies. They are in no position to fix it. The only solution is for them to BUTT OUT and let the market find its own balance. That will inevitably result in further declines in home values, because they are STILL artificially inflated. People seem to forget that this bust in home values is still smaller than the outrageous, unprecedented, unsustainable boom that created it. Values went up 300% from 2001-2006, and have only gone down 35% since then. There is still a lot of room to go down before there is any real, long-term loss. They could go down another 35% without a long-term loss, and probably should.
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RamonAdams Wrote:9 hours ago (12:03 PM)
In 2006 my son & his wife were looking for a house in S Texas. The story repeated itself many times: Their realtor called them that a new house was on the market today, meet me there NOW. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that every time they got to the house, as they were leaving their car, a car with Calif plates screeched to a stop on the lawn and the occupants would jump out, carrying a washtub full of $100 bills, screaming "We'll take it."
A great time to be selling a house, a terrible time to buy one.
But the next phase of the bubble, great time to buy, terrible time to sell (at least the first part) never came, because SURPRISE!!! the gov't interfered in that end of the bubble, too.
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JHow Wrote:12 hours ago (9:27 AM)
"Sixty-three percent think the primary goal in issuing a housing loan should be whether the homeowner can repay it."
Which means a solid 37% are clueless.
Why does it always seem like a third of any population are abject idiots?
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Nomas Wrote:11 hours ago (10:00 AM)
I wonder if people in this 37% are also the majority of those who used the equity in their house as a piggy bank to subsidize their lifestyle and are now surprised to find themselves with a house worth less than they owe?
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Think Wrote:7 hours ago (2:37 PM)
Because we have a two-party system and no one other than "abject idiots" votes for Democrats, causing Dems to continue policies to keep people stupid.
Proof: Dems keep saying we need to spend more on schools. EVERY major metro school district has been run by Dems since 1945. If Dems REALLY wanted better schools, we would HAVE better schools. But if we educated everyone to a decent HS level in decent schools, hardly anyone would vote for Dems... and they KNOW this, hence bad schools. No other logical explanation exists.
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MoreFreedom Wrote:12 hours ago (8:59 AM)
Rasmussen misses the fact that the FED's printing of money provided the capital for all the home building and borrowing. Without the inflation of the money supply, interest rates would have been higher reducing the pool of borrowers and money chasing homes. In other words, the FED created a bubble that burst.
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Origanalist Again Wrote:11 hours ago (10:11 AM)
Bingo. I'm in construction and remember watching this thing going on in amazement. It really didn't take a genius to see the whole thing was going to collapse.
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Capt-Call Wrote:10 hours ago (11:31 AM)
I built high end resort homes and sold my last one 2008 and called myself lucky . It is going to be several years before we get this stabilized
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CousinFran Wrote:13 hours ago (8:17 AM)
IBuilders, mortgage companies and appraisers had a lot to do with the bust as well. They were all high on the gravy train. With the government allowing these no down/or low down mortgages with little credit worthiness, it was a way to pump up the coffers of state and local governments with new real estate taxes and also increase retail sales from everything to carpet, building materials, furniture, landscaping and everything else associated with new homes and resales. It was a win win situation for all of them until the bubble burst. In my home state, real estate values have plummeted to pre 1997 prices and I have not only lost appreciation during that time period but I have lost a good part of my principal as well.
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Diane502 Wrote:13 hours ago (7:48 AM)
Geez, when all the data and facts are clearly defined, one would think that government housing was the ultimate goal of the federal government/banking cartel. Just imagine all the profits they planned on raking in as years go by and mortgages get paid off via the renters. How come no one ever shares the fact that obama made 20 million from ACORN for his anti American thrust in this matter?
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johnm h Wrote:14 hours ago (7:37 AM)
Had we just left the market fall, let banks go belly up, (of course and not mismanage the rest of the economy) The recession would have been much deeper but it would have been over by now, people would be snaping up homes at bargain prices. But there is no way for folks who bought homes in the previous 5-8 years to not lose. The government created bubble was leveraged by clever folks on wall street who couldn't resist a one way bet. Of course the same crooks who gave us the government created bubble blamed the whole thing on the clever folks who took a one way bet.
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anderson659 Wrote:20 hours ago (1:18 AM)
Another Obama success story, or its all the fault of Bush. Either way for Obama, it's tee time
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calhoun211 Wrote:16 hours ago (4:52 AM)
Only a lib could come up with an idea like Fannie and Freddie, be they Repub or Jackasses.
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Townhall Columnists Scott Rasmussen
The Housing Market Is Depressing America
Scott Rasmussen
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Just 49 percent of homeowners in America now believe their home is worth more than they paid for it.
Rasmussen Reports has asked that question for years, and it has never before fallen below the 50 percent mark. This represents a sea change in personal finances that challenges core assumptions about the way our economy works.
Most Americans were brought up to believe the cornerstone of good financial planning was to buy a home, pay the mortgage on time and watch the equity grow. That doesn't work at a time when home values are declining.
Economists measure the lost equity in housing to be in the trillions of dollars. But the impact on individual families is even greater. Consider this: Four years ago, 80 percent of homeowners thought their home was worth more than they paid for it. That number fell to 62 percent last fall and 49 percent today.
In just four years, roughly one out of three homeowners went from having made money with a supposedly safe investment to seeing all the gains disappear. That's a stunning turnaround for people who thought they were doing the right thing and buying their share of the American Dream.
Adding to the sense of gloom, homeowners don't think we've hit bottom yet. Just 21 percent believe that their home will go up in value this year, while 25 percent expect further declines.
Even looking ahead five years, only 46 percent believe their home will go up in value. Such a low number would have been unthinkable until recently, and it's one reason many homeowners feel trapped.
The housing crisis was triggered by a soft economy, and most Americans recognize that it won't be solved until the overall economy regains strength. They're not looking for a quick fix with some magical new housing policy. Instead, they have serious concerns about jobs, inflation, federal spending and deficits that cloud prospects for a robust recovery.
But while the soft economy was the trigger, most homeowners recognize that the underlying cause of the housing crisis was a corrupt relationship between the federal government, elected politicians and well-connected financiers. While the housing market was collapsing, the financiers were getting bailed out.
Seventy-seven percent have an unfavorable opinion of Freddie Mac, and 73 percent say the same about Fannie Mae. Those two government-sponsored enterprises changed the rules of the mortgage game. One "innovation" was to encourage policies that let people buy a home with no money down. Most Americans reject that type of new math.
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Tags: Budget and Government , Fannie/Freddie , Housing Market , Housing Crisis , America , Housing
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Scott RasmussenScott Rasmussen is founder and president of Rasmussen Reports. He is a political analyst, author, speaker and, since 1994, an independent public opinion pollster.
Scott founded Rasmussen Reports, LLC in 2003 as a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion polling information. Rasmussen Reports provides in-depth data, news coverage and commentary on political, business, economic and lifestyle topics at RasmussenReports.com, America’s most visited public opinion polling site.
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Erwin44 Wrote:3 hours ago (5:45 PM)
Paying upwards of a quarter million in interest to own a home was based on a premise that no longer exists.
Carrying a mortgage and paying exorbitant interest, fees and closing costs to benefit from the increase in your home's value over time to FUND YOUR RETIREMENT are activities that are based on a premise that no longer exists.
What this all means for the future, I do not know. I own a home and pay my mortgage. Luckily, we did not use our home as a piggy bank so we are not underwater.
We just live there.
So the prevailing wisdom seems to be that you own a home as someplace to live. Not to fund your retirement. Not as an investment. Not as a piggy bank.
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Blair31 Wrote:6 hours ago (3:35 PM)
Instead of bailing out Fannie and Freddie, why not cut them off and allow them to go out of business?
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Think Wrote:7 hours ago (2:33 PM)
OTOH, with housing at (or near) historic lows. this is a PERFECT time to introduce a truly flat tax. Dropping the mortgage deduction normally would cause housing to crash. Well, it's already crashed. And a Flat Tax will get the lobbyists and politicians out of the business of using deductions as favors - and LET THE FREE MARKET WORK. And save us hundreds of billions in compliance and reporting and litigation...
Even Warren Buffet could pay the $1B he owes in back taxes.
Get the government out of our way and we can all get back to productive work. Best way to do that? Flat tax.
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John5103 Wrote:8 hours ago (12:49 PM)
The politicians wrecked the economy and the housing market with their nonsensical fantasies. They are in no position to fix it. The only solution is for them to BUTT OUT and let the market find its own balance. That will inevitably result in further declines in home values, because they are STILL artificially inflated. People seem to forget that this bust in home values is still smaller than the outrageous, unprecedented, unsustainable boom that created it. Values went up 300% from 2001-2006, and have only gone down 35% since then. There is still a lot of room to go down before there is any real, long-term loss. They could go down another 35% without a long-term loss, and probably should.
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RamonAdams Wrote:9 hours ago (12:03 PM)
In 2006 my son & his wife were looking for a house in S Texas. The story repeated itself many times: Their realtor called them that a new house was on the market today, meet me there NOW. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that every time they got to the house, as they were leaving their car, a car with Calif plates screeched to a stop on the lawn and the occupants would jump out, carrying a washtub full of $100 bills, screaming "We'll take it."
A great time to be selling a house, a terrible time to buy one.
But the next phase of the bubble, great time to buy, terrible time to sell (at least the first part) never came, because SURPRISE!!! the gov't interfered in that end of the bubble, too.
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JHow Wrote:12 hours ago (9:27 AM)
"Sixty-three percent think the primary goal in issuing a housing loan should be whether the homeowner can repay it."
Which means a solid 37% are clueless.
Why does it always seem like a third of any population are abject idiots?
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Nomas Wrote:11 hours ago (10:00 AM)
I wonder if people in this 37% are also the majority of those who used the equity in their house as a piggy bank to subsidize their lifestyle and are now surprised to find themselves with a house worth less than they owe?
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Think Wrote:7 hours ago (2:37 PM)
Because we have a two-party system and no one other than "abject idiots" votes for Democrats, causing Dems to continue policies to keep people stupid.
Proof: Dems keep saying we need to spend more on schools. EVERY major metro school district has been run by Dems since 1945. If Dems REALLY wanted better schools, we would HAVE better schools. But if we educated everyone to a decent HS level in decent schools, hardly anyone would vote for Dems... and they KNOW this, hence bad schools. No other logical explanation exists.
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MoreFreedom Wrote:12 hours ago (8:59 AM)
Rasmussen misses the fact that the FED's printing of money provided the capital for all the home building and borrowing. Without the inflation of the money supply, interest rates would have been higher reducing the pool of borrowers and money chasing homes. In other words, the FED created a bubble that burst.
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Origanalist Again Wrote:11 hours ago (10:11 AM)
Bingo. I'm in construction and remember watching this thing going on in amazement. It really didn't take a genius to see the whole thing was going to collapse.
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Capt-Call Wrote:10 hours ago (11:31 AM)
I built high end resort homes and sold my last one 2008 and called myself lucky . It is going to be several years before we get this stabilized
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CousinFran Wrote:13 hours ago (8:17 AM)
IBuilders, mortgage companies and appraisers had a lot to do with the bust as well. They were all high on the gravy train. With the government allowing these no down/or low down mortgages with little credit worthiness, it was a way to pump up the coffers of state and local governments with new real estate taxes and also increase retail sales from everything to carpet, building materials, furniture, landscaping and everything else associated with new homes and resales. It was a win win situation for all of them until the bubble burst. In my home state, real estate values have plummeted to pre 1997 prices and I have not only lost appreciation during that time period but I have lost a good part of my principal as well.
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Diane502 Wrote:13 hours ago (7:48 AM)
Geez, when all the data and facts are clearly defined, one would think that government housing was the ultimate goal of the federal government/banking cartel. Just imagine all the profits they planned on raking in as years go by and mortgages get paid off via the renters. How come no one ever shares the fact that obama made 20 million from ACORN for his anti American thrust in this matter?
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johnm h Wrote:14 hours ago (7:37 AM)
Had we just left the market fall, let banks go belly up, (of course and not mismanage the rest of the economy) The recession would have been much deeper but it would have been over by now, people would be snaping up homes at bargain prices. But there is no way for folks who bought homes in the previous 5-8 years to not lose. The government created bubble was leveraged by clever folks on wall street who couldn't resist a one way bet. Of course the same crooks who gave us the government created bubble blamed the whole thing on the clever folks who took a one way bet.
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anderson659 Wrote:20 hours ago (1:18 AM)
Another Obama success story, or its all the fault of Bush. Either way for Obama, it's tee time
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calhoun211 Wrote:16 hours ago (4:52 AM)
Only a lib could come up with an idea like Fannie and Freddie, be they Repub or Jackasses.
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