Study: More people skeptical of homeownership

 A new survey suggests more people are leery of buying a home in light of the ongoing housing market downturn. The National Foundation for Credit Counseling survey revealed that nearly half of all American adults no longer believe homeownership is a realistic way to build wealth.

City hosts workshops for buying foreclosed homes

Arizonans struggling with debt delinquency

Study: Valley home values stabilizing

The national telephone survey of 1,001 adults took place May 29-June 1.

Among the findings:

• Nearly one-third of those surveyed do not think they will ever be able to afford to buy a home.

• Forty-two percent of those who once purchased a home, but no longer own it, do not think they will ever be able to afford to buy another one.

• Of those who still own a home, 31 percent do not think they’ll ever be able to buy another home.

• Seventy-four percent of those who have never purchased a home felt that they could benefit from first-time homebuyer education from a professional.

“The lack of confidence in consumers’ ability to buy a home, improve their current housing situation or trust homeownership to provide a significant portion of their wealth sends a strong message about the impact of the housing crisis,” said Gail Cunningham, foundation spokeswoman. “It appears that whether a person was directly affected or not, American’s attitudes toward home ownership have shifted.”

Dennis Hoffman, economics professor in the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, isn’t surprised that many people’s attitudes toward homeownership have soured.

“It’s just kind of a psychological thing,” he said. “When people loved housing back in 2005-2006, they way overloved it, and now they’re way overhating it. I think psychology will slowly improve as we go forward. It may take years to kind of regain the basic confidence that people have in housing.”

John Stih, CEO of the Southeast Valley Regional Association of Realtors, said the American dream of homeownership is still out there, but “their vision might be blurred a little bit because when they went through this last cycle, they wanted to reap all the benefits.

“There’s still going to be homeownership, but maybe it won’t (yield) as much equity as it did in the past because it will be slower and it will be controlled because I don’t think the government and the regulators are going to let things get out of hand again,” Stih said. “When you had 50 percent to 100 percent appreciation, that just couldn’t sustain itself. But homeowners will still be there.”

Regardless of negative psychology, the time to buy is when the market is down, Hoffman said.

“When everybody loves stuff, that means it’s overpriced, so that means you should be selling,” he said. “We’ve got a very aggressive banking and Federal Reserve policy that’s going to help stimulate the economy, so for people who have the wherewithal, it’s the time to take advantage of it.”

The survey finding that indicates more people believe they could benefit from education before buying a home is good news for buyers and the overall market, Stih said.

“I think that’s what caused our current problem,” he said. “People didn’t read. They got in to a house or they found a loan that they thought they could benefit from and they didn’t read the fine print.”

Sales have increased and investors have returned to the market, and that’s a good thing, Stih said. Speculators, not investors, were the ones who caused problems in the housing market, he said.

“Speculators are basically folks who get into it to make a quick buck and flip the property,” he said. “Investors are folks who basically are in for the long haul and wait for the appreciation to give them their gain on the property. These investors are helping to stimulate the market.”