Support for Homeownership Falls 6 Percent

The number of Americans who believe buying a home is a good financial decision has fallen every year since 2007 and reached a low of 77 percent this year, according to an annual survey released yesterday by the National Association of Realtors.

Support for buying a home as a good financial decision has fallen a total six percent in three years, from 83 to 77 percent. However, those who feel strongly that buying a home is a good financial decision has fallen twice as quickly, from 80 percent to 68 percent this year.

Only 68 percent of survey participants felt strongly that buying a home is a good financial decision and 16 percent felt it was not a good financial decision, up from 10 percent three years ago.

Some 68 percent of those surveyed still now is a good time to buy a home a decline of seven percent from last year but. In 2008, 66 percent and in 2007 59 percent said it is a good time to buy a home.

“The real issue facing the nation’s economy right now is that many Americans can’t find meaningful work to support their families,” said NAR President Vicki Cox Golder, owner of Vicki L. Cox & Associates in Tucson, Ariz. “While a job recovery is what’s needed right now to get the economy and housing market back on the right track, owning a home continues to be part of the American Dream and one of the best long-term investments in your future.”

The six percentage point decline in support for homeownership found by the NAR survey exceeds the rate of decline in actual homeownership over the same time period. In the second quarter of 2007, the national homeownership rate was 68.2 percent. In the second quarter of this year, it stood at 66.9 percent, a drop of only 2.7 percentage points.

NAR’s 2010 National Housing Pulse Survey measures how affordable housing issues affect consumers. It is conducted by American Strategies and Myers Research & Strategic Services for NAR’s Housing Opportunity Program. The telephone survey was among 1,209 adults living in the 25 most populous metropolitan statistical areas. The study has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.