Homeowners Pessimistic - unless you've just bought a property!

According to the Zillow Second Quarter Homeowner Confidence Survey, U.S. homeowners were less confident about the value of their homes in the second quarter, with one-third believing home prices had not yet reached a bottom. Homeowners were more pessimistic about the short-term future of home values in their local market than they had been in the previous three quarters, with 33% believing home values in their local housing market had not yet reached a bottom, while 38% believed they had already
reached a bottom. Nationally, 28% of homeowners said home values in their local real estate market would decrease in the next six months, up from 20% in the first quarter.
Additionally, less than one-third, or 30%, believed home values in their local market would increase, down from 42% in the first quarter.

Zillow said less than a quarter, or 24%, of homeowners said their home had increased in value in the past year, compared with 27% in the first quarter. In reality, 34% of homes increased in value in the second quarter, according to the Zillow Q2 Real Estate Market
Reports. 27% of homeowners believed their own homes' values would increase in the next 12 months, 35% believed they will stay the same, 12% expected a decrease and 26% did not know. Of those who expected their homes' values to increase, the median
expectation was a rise of 6%, although that varied by geography. Despite the increasing pessimism, a large number of homeowners were anxiously awaiting the opportunity to sell. Indeed, 5% of U.S. homeowners said they were very likely to put their home on the
market in the next six months if they saw signs of a real estate market turnaround. Zillow said this translated into 3.8 million homes with the potential to come into the market. By
comparison, 5.2 million existing homes were sold in all of 2009. As these homeowners hear news of stabilization in home values, they put their homes on the market, driving up inventory and keeping a cap on home value appreciation.
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