Lower Expectations Dent Housing Confidence

A street sign that says bump in the middle of the road.

According to the vast majority of 10,000 heads of household who participated in the latest U.S. Housing Confidence Survey conducted by Pulsenomics, prevailing real estate market conditions are healthy, and in most major metropolitan areas, have continued to improve. However, expectations concerning the housing market–while still positive–have reversed course since the start of the year,…

Read More

The Cost of Rent Control is (Still) Too Damn High

A man with long hair and beard wearing a suit.

Some U.S. cities are evaluating or implementing new rent control regulations to curtail rapidly-rising rising rents and worsening rental affordability. For example, in just the past few weeks, rent control policy has garnered headlines in New York City, where the Rent Guidelines Board voted to freeze rents for a year on roughly 1 million regulated units…

Read More

Outlook for US Home Prices Dims

A person holding onto a glass ball

The results of the latest Zillow Home Price Expectations Survey are in: the panel’s expectation for U.S. home values fell to a 3.4 percent average annual rate for the five-year forecast horizon in Q3. This is the first time in 18 months that this proxy for experts’ housing market sentiment has weakened, and it’s the…

Read More

Most Experts Expect Home Value Gains Will Slow

A home for sale sign in front of a house.

Despite low inventory and persistent price gains in U.S. residential real estate markets, most of the 111 panelists who participated in the latest Zillow Home Price Expectations Survey believe that home values will level-off. The panel expects home values to rise an average of 4.3 percent nationally in 2015 (they rose 5% last year), and…

Read More

Great (and Quite Variable) Expectations

A gold background with the words great expectations

“I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape.” – Charles Dickens, from Great Expectations The U.S. Housing Confidence Survey (HCS) includes several questions regarding expectations for future home values within the local market where each head of household respondent resides. We ask the questions and carefully monitor the…

Read More

The Millennial Mindset re: Housing – An Update

A woman hugging another woman in front of a house.

The U.S. millennial generation–the group of people 18 to 34 years of age–is projected by The Census Bureau to exceed 75 million and surpass the baby boomers to become the largest generation this year. The attitudes and actions of members of this group will influence the health and dynamics of U.S. housing markets in the…

Read More

Renter Aspirations Bottoming in Boston, Booming in L.A.

A person taking a picture of a house with their phone.

The level of housing confidence today can influence economic consumption, and supply & demand for residential real estate tomorrow. This is why it is essential to measure and monitor housing confidence. In any real estate market, aspirations for future homeownership among today’s renters are key indicators of housing confidence. The Homeownership Aspirations Index (HAI)–one component…

Read More

Consumer Confidence in Housing is Building

A green sign that says " welcome to optimism."

As reported last week, The Zillow® U.S. Composite Housing Confidence Indexâ„¢ (ZHCI) rose to 67.4 in January, an increase of 3.2 points from its level six months earlier and up 3.6 points year-over-year, indicating continued growth in positive housing sentiment within local real estate markets across the country. Analysis of the indicator indices underlying the…

Read More

Open House Mayhem: Will it Last?

A man with chains around his neck and holding onto an orange object.

Perhaps there are glimmers of hope for anxious would-be home buyers frustrated by the dearth of existing inventory in many real estate markets (consider this CNBC report today). The January 2015 U.S. Housing Confidence Survey (HCS)–the same survey cited in the CNBC report, and from which The Zillow Housing Confidence Index is derived–reveals that, in…

Read More

Housing Hurdles

A picture of houses with lines drawn all over them.

Pulsenomics asked members of its expert real estate panel to indicate and rank factors that they consider to be significant impediments in the near- to intermediate-term to a more uniform and sustainable U.S. housing market recovery. Here’s the breakdown of the responses: We also asked the panelists which factor they consider to be the most…

Read More