Poll: Housing still best investment in US
Source: Agencies |
April 13, 2011, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
EVEN as a five-year slump in US house prices drags on, eight-out-of-10 Americans say bricks and mortar remain the best long-term investment, according to a new study.
The survey by the Pew Research Center's Social and Demographic Trends project found that 81 percent of respondents see housing as the best investment a person can make, despite a price slump that has knocked nearly a third off home values since 2006.
"The resilience of the American public's belief in the investment value of home ownership is pretty impressive," Paul Taylor, the project's director and a co-author of the report, said.
"In modern economic history we've never had a five-year period where home values have fallen as long or as far as they have now."
United States home prices were down by around 32 percent at the start of this year from their pre-recession peak in July 2006, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released late last month. After a pause last year, prices fell again in the first quarter of this year, the Pew Research Center said.
The telephone survey was conducted among 2,142 adults last month.
It found that while the American public continued to believe in housing as an investment, there had been some falloff in the intensity of their faith.
It found that 37 percent "strongly" agreed that a home is the best long-term investment a person can make, while 44 percent "somewhat" agreed that home-ownership is the best investment a person can make.
When the same questions were put in a CBS News/New York Times survey two decades ago, 49 percent "strongly agreed" that homes were the best investment, and 35 percent "somewhat agreed," the study noted.
Nearly half of homeowners said their home was worth less now than before the recession hit in late 2007.
The survey by the Pew Research Center's Social and Demographic Trends project found that 81 percent of respondents see housing as the best investment a person can make, despite a price slump that has knocked nearly a third off home values since 2006.
"The resilience of the American public's belief in the investment value of home ownership is pretty impressive," Paul Taylor, the project's director and a co-author of the report, said.
"In modern economic history we've never had a five-year period where home values have fallen as long or as far as they have now."
United States home prices were down by around 32 percent at the start of this year from their pre-recession peak in July 2006, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released late last month. After a pause last year, prices fell again in the first quarter of this year, the Pew Research Center said.
The telephone survey was conducted among 2,142 adults last month.
It found that while the American public continued to believe in housing as an investment, there had been some falloff in the intensity of their faith.
It found that 37 percent "strongly" agreed that a home is the best long-term investment a person can make, while 44 percent "somewhat" agreed that home-ownership is the best investment a person can make.
When the same questions were put in a CBS News/New York Times survey two decades ago, 49 percent "strongly agreed" that homes were the best investment, and 35 percent "somewhat agreed," the study noted.
Nearly half of homeowners said their home was worth less now than before the recession hit in late 2007.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
