On the Day of the First Presidential Debates: Texas Realtors and Homeowners Not Too Keen on President Obama
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Courtesy AP
Homegain is a company based out of San Francisco, CA — Emeryville — and I know the GM, Louis Cammarosano. HomeGain exists as a portal for finding real estate agents, researching home values, and viewing homes for sale — yes, kind of like a Zillow or Trulia, but with more Realtor research. HomeGain is a division of Classified Ventures, LLC a strategic joint venture formed by Belo Corp., Gannett Co., The McClatchy Company, Tribune Company, and The Washington Post Company. Classified Ventures’ also owns and operates Cars.com, an automotive Web site where consumers can find information on new and used cars and shop for a vehicle, Apartments.com, a national on line apartment guide and relocation resource and Homescape.com, a national network of local newspaper real estate websites.
You saw the ownership by five media companies… including our Belo, that’s right. Homegain is a smart stab at owning some of that world wide web traffic that is chipping away at traditional print ad revenue. Diversify, right? Anyhow, that is not terribly real-estate related, but I always like to tell you who the heck these companies are that come up with these studies. When it comes to what consumers (2200) and agents (300) are thinking, Homegain is a decent bellweather.
President Barack Obama’s performance is hurting home prices, they say. Yep, Texas ranked as No 4. nationally, with real estate agents (73 percent) and homeowners (67 percent) disapproving of the President’s work, according to HomeGain’s latest report. Nationally, Obama earned a 67 percent disapproval rating from Real Estate agents and a 56 percent disapproval rate from homeowners. But!
“Optimism about the direction of home prices continues to grow,” said Louis Cammarosano, General Manager of HomeGain. “The survey shows an increase in optimism, especially over the course of the next two years, as 80 percent of real estate professionals expect home prices to be higher than they are today.”
Fifty-three percent of agents and brokers surveyed indicated that they “strongly disapproved” and 14 percent “somewhat disapproved” of Barack Obama’s performance as President, earning him a 67 percent disapproval rating, a decrease of five percent from the disapproval rating of agents and brokers surveyed in the third quarter of 2011. So as the market improves, it’s getting better. In the second quarter of 2012, the President had a 66 percent disapproval rating among agents and brokers.
Think we already told you what S&P’s/Case-Shiller said about prices of existing homes in the Dallas area: they rose 3.7 percent in July from a year earlier. Dallas-area home prices are down about 5 percent from the peak of the local housing market five years ago, which was spring of 2009.
Now don’t let this knock you out of your chair, hang on: HomeGain found that U.S. real estate agents tend to be more optimistic about home values than homeowners.
(Ya think?)
Forty-eight percent of agents polled last month expect home values to increase, the same amount as in the second-quarter survey. But when polled, only 34 percent of homeowners expect values to rise, little less optimistic. Still that’s up from 27 percent in the second quarter.
Show me a Realtor who is not naturally optimistic, I’ll show you a — former Realtor.
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I for one am glad to see the increased regulation in the market and on the banks.
Regardless of what one thinks about President Obama's performance, the plate that he inherited was a disaster. The econonomy was in free fall in November of 2008 – we were losing 700,000 jobs a month. President Obama effectively prevented a 2nd Great Depression. While an unemployment rate of 8% isn't ideal….it sure beats 25% which is what the nation would have been facing without his leadership and subsequent stimulus efforts.
This "Great Recession" was the result of lack of effective regulation and oversight in the Market.
The repeal of Glass-Steagal (helped along tremendously by Texas' own Phil Gramm) was a contributor to the impending disaster. Further the unregulated derivatives market was a contributor to the bubble and bust as well. The CDO (Collateralized Debt Obligation implosion)
was beautifully explained by recent Harvard economics graduate Anna Katherine Barnett-Hart
in her masterful thesis of 2009. (for those technically inclined it can be found online)
Ultimately, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
That's why I'm voting to move FORWARD in this election and support President Obama's re-election.
I simply do not want to return to the regressive "Wild West laissez-faire" policies of the GOP.
We can't afford another disaster like the one we've just been through.
I for one am glad to see the increased regulation in the market and on the banks.
Regardless of what one thinks about President Obama's performance, the plate that he inherited was a disaster. The econonomy was in free fall in November of 2008 – we were losing 700,000 jobs a month. President Obama effectively prevented a 2nd Great Depression. While an unemployment rate of 8% isn't ideal….it sure beats 25% which is what the nation would have been facing without his leadership and subsequent stimulus efforts.
This "Great Recession" was the result of lack of effective regulation and oversight in the Market.
The repeal of Glass-Steagal (helped along tremendously by Texas' own Phil Gramm) was a contributor to the impending disaster. Further the unregulated derivatives market was a contributor to the bubble and bust as well. The CDO (Collateralized Debt Obligation implosion)
was beautifully explained by recent Harvard economics graduate Anna Katherine Barnett-Hart
in her masterful thesis of 2009. (for those technically inclined it can be found online)
Ultimately, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
That's why I'm voting to move FORWARD in this election and support President Obama's re-election.
I simply do not want to return to the regressive "Wild West laissez-faire" policies of the GOP.
We can't afford another disaster like the one we've just been through.
….one other CRITICAL point I forgot to mention is that one of the loopholes Mitt Romney wants to close is the Mortgage Interest Deduction….which is one of the very few deductions that promotes home ownership and that the Middle Class benefits from directly. The elimination of the Mortgage Interest Deduction would not help our industry recover.
Mitt Romney is not a friend to Realtors and the housing industry.
….one other CRITICAL point I forgot to mention is that one of the loopholes Mitt Romney wants to close is the Mortgage Interest Deduction….which is one of the very few deductions that promotes home ownership and that the Middle Class benefits from directly. The elimination of the Mortgage Interest Deduction would not help our industry recover.
Mitt Romney is not a friend to Realtors and the housing industry.
Mitt wants to end the Mortgage Deduction?
Mitt wants to end the Mortgage Deduction?