Those of you who keep up with the world of real estate news and bloggery may have noticed that optimism about the housing market isn’t so easy to come by these days. From tiny local blog posts to major news articles, real estate seems to be in a state of all-consuming doom-and-gloom.
Never mind all that. At least that’s what huge segments of the REAL homebuying experts are saying. Who are these experts, you ask? That’s easy: they’re you and your neighbors.
Pew Research Center recently surveyed about 2100 average American home-buyers to find out how they feel about home-ownership 5 years after the bubble burst. And it turns out that, despite ups and downs, 81% of the people still believe that owning a home is the best investment out there.*
That’s a strong consensus, and it includes homeowners whose home decreased in value along with owners whose homes increased in value or stayed the same. Though that 81% does reflect a 3% decrease from 20 years ago (see chart below), it’s still an incredibly confident stance.
Homeowners aren’t the only ones who still believe in buying – 81% of renters hope to become owners eventually.*
It all points to something that we at Movoto have believed for a long time: the real value of homeownership is more than a price-tag. Yes, the market is a little scary right now, but that doesn’t change the underlying objective value of having a place in the world that’s all your own. Price-tags will recover, but peace of mind is priceless.
*(Graphs from: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1960/homeownership-still-thought-best-long-term-investment-by-big-majority%20target)
