Will the upcoming presidential election improve the real estate market? Most of the nation is wondering. Based on a new survey by Harris Interactive and commissioned by Move, Inc.. here’s what people think:

Nearly half of all home buyers (44%) believe the housing market will improve once the new President takes office in January, 2009.

Despite any reservations, the survey indicates underlying demand for homeownership is healthy. While nearly half (41%) of current homeowners do plan to purchase a home again, 80% of all renters plan to purchase a home someday with 47% planning to purchase a home within the next five years. More people who plan to move will do so for space-related (26%) and life-stage change reasons (17%), such as having children (2%) or downsizing to a smaller residence (9%), not financial ones including an increase in rent (2%) or an expensive mortgage (less than 1/2%).

Most home buyers (78%) are also willing to make sacrifices to save and earn extra income for down payments and will compromise on neighborhood features and residential amenities in order to buy a home in the current market. Many of their choices may reflect changing values, including a growing concern over the environment, the importance of community features and the rising cost of fuel.

While about four out of five home buyers (81%) say they face barriers to buying a home in the current market, the greatest single barrier to homeownership today is high home prices (31%), a concern that was much higher in the West (39%), than in the South (27%) or Midwest (26%).

Four out of five adults (84%) say there is something about buying a home that is intimidating, and one out of three (34%) say money-related issues being a concern. Finding the right home is the most intimidating part of the home-buying process for about one out of five (19%). About two thirds of adults (62%) have visited an online real estate web site and once on the site, 23 percent are looking to purchase and 52 percent are looking at what’s on the market.

Source: Harris Interactive. Move Inc. Real Trends.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 at 10:26 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.