Owners Still Optimistic About Their Home Values

Wow, you talk about looking at the world thorugh rose colored glasses. This story from a recent Zillow.com report says that many home owners remain doubtful that their homes have lost value in the current financial downturn, according to a survey of home owners conducted by Harris Interactive for Zillow.com.

About 49 percent of those surveyed, down from 62 percent at the end of the second quarter, believe that their own home’s value has increased or stayed the same over the past year.

Home owners in the Northeast were the most optimistic with 56 percent believing the value of their homes had stayed the same or risen. Slightly fewer—53 percent—in the South had similar attitudes. Westerners and Midwesterners were more pessimistic with 48 percent and 35 percent respectively having that perception. At least the midwesterners are realistic, perhaps from having been inundated with bad news stories in teh press and on TV.

Other key results from the survey include:

- 50 percent of those who say they support John McCain and 56 percent of Barack Obama supporters believe their home values decreased over the past year.

- 3 percent say they plan to sell their home in the next six months, down from 5 percent last quarter. Another 3 percent say they plan to buy a home, down from 4 percent in the second quarter.

- 53 percent are planning either major (such as replacing the roof or remodeling the kitchen) or minor (like installing a new garbage disposal or painting) home improvements next year. Of those, 47 percent plan minor improvements and 15 percent plan major improvements.

So, hope does spring eternal or at least disbelief springs eternal. Maybe if we click our heals together three times and say "my house didn't go down, my house didn't go down, my house didn't go down" things will be as they were. We'll all wake up and find that this was just a terible nightmare and we're all safe now with Auntie Em and Toto. To see the entire story abot the Zillow.com survey, click here.