While the housing market has been among the bright spots in the pandemic-era economy, a new survey conducted by LendingTree finds nearly half of Americans believing this bright spot will soon become tarnished.
In a survey of 2,051 adults conducted between Dec. 17-20, 41% of respondents predicted the real estate bubble will burst this year, forcing home prices to come down after years of nonstop acceleration. Another 26% predicted the housing market”™s cooling will occur in 2022, while 13% were confident another housing market crash will never happen.
Despite the pessimistic outlook, 80% of those surveyed still considered homeownership to define the American Dream, with 45% predicting an expansion in affordable housing under the new Biden administration. But 31% believed the new administration will bring fewer affordable housing options and 40% predicted the historically low mortgage rates will begin to rise.
LendingTree also reported that nearly one-quarter of the survey respondents believed that homes will suffer damage from floods and storms as a result of climate change, with 55% stating they would not buy a home in a high-risk coastal zone while 26% said the home”™s location and price might encourage them to buy such a property.
“Depending on the response, climate change will certainly have an impact on home values in many parts of the country, and especially in coastal zones where increased flooding makes building and buying traditional homes less appealing,” LendingTree”™s Chief Economist Tendayi Kapfidze said.
“That being said, infrastructural improvements proposed in coastal areas, as well as home building innovations, could offset some, if not most, of this loss in value.”
