NAHB Survey Shows Support for Fed Housing Help

Washington, DC, March 2, 2010--Americans remain strongly committed to federal support for home buyers, according to a National Association of Home Builders survey.

Roughly 68 percent of those polled said the government should continue to support housing, and 65 percent believe the government should be doing more to keep families from losing their homes to foreclosure, NAHB said.

The poll included both home owners and renters and was conducted for the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) by RT Strategies, a non-partisan public opinion polling firm based in Washington, D.C.

Some key groups said the government should continue to play a vital role in maintaining a healthy housing market. For example, 78 percent of all potential home buyers, including 81 percent of renters intending to buy a home soon, said the government should continue to support housing.

Roughly 65 percent of home owners said the government also needs to do more to keep families from losing their homes.

Among renters, 84 percent said the government needs to do more to helped strapped borrowers. This issue is particularly important to women, with 71 percent supporting greater foreclosure protection, compared to 58 percent of men.

Keeping families in their homes is also particularly important to first-time home buyers, as 78 percent of young adults under age 30 support greater foreclosure protection. And 69 percent of adults who are 30 to 44, the prime age range for move-up buyers, said they support more foreclosure protection.

Financial concerns continue to be the greatest barrier to growth in the housing market.  Among renters nationwide who aspire to own their own home, 39 percent simply don’t have the money to buy a home, and another 20 percent said the primary obstacle is that they feel they cannot qualify for a loan.

Larger economic issues also play a role, as 18 percent said that job security is the greatest obstacle they face in trying to buy a home.

Weakness in the housing market itself may be blocking some home owners who would like to buy a new home, as 29 percent of current home owners said their greatest obstacle to purchasing another home is their inability to sell their current home.

Beyond that, among current home owners who aspire to buy a new home, 7 percent feel trapped by a mortgage that exceeds the value of their current home, 14 percent fear that the value of a new home might fall after they make the investment, and 13 percent say home prices are just too high to allow them to buy a new home at this time.