No Place Like Home -- Even if the Value Is in the Tank

Report Read time:
No Place Like Home -- Even if the Value Is in the Tank

Not even a housing-led recession can shake Americans' faith in the blessings of homeownership.

House prices may be falling, foreclosures rising and residential sales weak -- yet the vast majority of homeowners say their home is a source of comfort (90%) in their life, while just 6% say it is a burden, according to a Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends survey conducted Oct. 3-19, 2008 among a nationally representative sample of 2,260 adults, including 1,625 homeowners. Another 4% say their home is both a comfort and a burden.

This warm feeling of owners for their homes contrasts sharply with the nation's chilly residential real estate market. By the end of last year, Zillow.com, an online real estate information source, calculated that U.S. home values had fallen 17.5% since the market peak in 2006 -- or by a total of $6.1 trillion.

Homeowners aren't unmindful of this tanking market. Eight-in-ten (82%) in the Pew Research Center survey say that now is a bad time to sell a home in their area. More than seven-in-ten (73%) say that this is a good time to buy a home.

Despite the current national housing funk -- or maybe as a refuge from it -- owners in all the major demographic groups overwhelmingly say they view their home as a comfort. There are no differences by gender, race, age, income or education. Nor do people's responses vary depending on whether or not they are married, have children or are employed. Owners who have never left their hometowns and those who have moved repeatedly are just as likely to say their homes are a comfort.

Read the full report No Place Like Home—Even if the Value Is in the Tank on the Pew Research Center's Web site.

America’s Overdose Crisis
America’s Overdose Crisis

America’s Overdose Crisis

Sign up for our five-email course explaining the overdose crisis in America, the state of treatment access, and ways to improve care

Sign up
Quick View
America’s Overdose Crisis

America’s Overdose Crisis

Sign up for our five-email course explaining the overdose crisis in America, the state of treatment access, and ways to improve care

Sign up

MORE FROM PEW

Exterior view of a Payday Loan Store in downtown Chicago, Illinois, 2019. (Photo by Interim Archives/Getty Images) How to Reform State Payday Loan Laws
A man talks with Dr. Stela Kostova at Families Together of Orange County in Tustin, CA on Tuesday, February 21, 2023 Local Efforts Show Promise in Addressing Opioid Use Disorder
A blue river meanders through a broad valley of evergreen forest, with patches of open land, as large mountains rise around it on a sunny day. The mountains in the background have rocky peaks above the tree line, and some are snowcapped. Millions of Acres in U.S. Could Gain Better Protection
A large colony of penguins congregates—some standing, others lying down—on an ice-covered expanse that rises to a backdrop of snow-and-rock mountain peaks. Science Driving Marine Conservation in Southern Atlantic
Composite image of modern city network communication concept

Learn the Basics of Broadband from Our Limited Series

Sign up for our four-week email course on Broadband Basics
Quick View

How does broadband internet reach our homes, phones, and tablets? What kind of infrastructure connects us all together? What are the major barriers to broadband access for American communities?