Most Americans won't buy a home anytime soon, poll finds

[marmar]

from AP, via Yahoo!:



AP poll: More avoid buying homes
By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer
24 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - A growing majority say they won't buy a home anytime soon, the latest sign of increasing pessimism about the nation's housing crisis, a poll showed Monday.

In a vivid sketch of how the sputtering real estate market is causing distress throughout the country, the Associated Press-AOL Money & Finance poll found that more than a quarter of homeowners worry their home will lose value over the next two years. Fully one in seven mortgage holders fear they won't be able to make their monthly payments on time over the next six months.

"This is a great time to buy, but not necessarily to sell," said Robert Jackson, who lives in a two-bedroom house in Ferguson, Mo., with his wife and four young children. He said he would love to purchase a larger home, but can't because even if he found a buyer, he would probably lose thousands on his house, which he bought less than two years ago.

"We're just going to have to slap a Band-Aid on it and stay here until the market gets a little bit better," Jackson, 30, said in a follow-up interview.

Jackson is not alone. Sixty percent said they definitely won't buy a home in the next two years, up from 53 percent who said so in an AP-AOL poll in September 2006. At the same time, just 11 percent are certain or very likely to buy soon, down from 15 percent two years ago.

The growing reluctance to dip into the housing market seems to stem partly from worry that housing prices will continue falling — good if you're buying a house but bad if you have to sell one.

The number envisioning falling prices in their area has grown to one in four, while four in 10 think prices will rise, a decrease from two years ago. Expectations for rising prices are highest in the South, with Westerners likeliest to predict they will drop. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080414/ap_on_bi_ge/housing_crisis_ap_poll

[DFW]

1. If I were moving back to the USA permanently any time soon

I would look into buying a home right now. The modest price I could get
for the house here in Euro-land would be a fortune when converted into
dollars today, and I could afford a fabulous place almost anywhere except
downtown San Francisco, Manhattan, Kailua Kona or Beverly Hills. The place
in Dallas isn't going anywhere, and I'd love a place in the Boston area for
the summer.

Still, as long as I am not ready for a desk job or retirement, and as long
as my wife does not want to leave living in Europe (she is from here), it
is out of the question.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Many Americans CAN'T buy a home in the next two years.

The value of their mortgages exceeds the value of their homes. Either the prospective buyer would have to pay off the seller's existing mortgage (which would likely be more than the actual value of the property) or the seller would have to make up the difference of the sales price and paying off its mortgage, perhaps inviting bankruptcy if the funds weren't available. Both scenarios don't make sense from a fiduciary point.

[Warpy]

3. I might

but it sure as hell won't be in this country.

I need a place where I can get health insurance, which means any other country in this hemisphere or in Europe.

Yes, even third world countries in the western hemisphere have national health insurance. They can't afford to make it universal yet, but they are trying.

This country is never going to deal with us fairly.

[Johonny]

4. The problem for me is

What's on the market is mostly these McMansions built in the last 10 years that are 1.5 to 2 times the average neighborhood price.