Trulia hosted a “Real Estate State of the Union” conference call today that revealed results from a recent survey on consumer sentiment with regard to how President Obama has handled the housing crisis in his first year in office. Also discussed are the most important next steps he can take to solve the housing crisis in 2010 and whether Americans believe homeownership is still a part of the “America Dream”. The discussion was hosted by Pete Flint, CEO of Trulia, Jonathan Miller, President and CEO of Miller Samuel, and Howard Glaser, Principal of The Glaser Group.
Key data points and quotes from the panel of real estate industry experts are included below, as well as the press release discussing the survey results.
Survey Data Points:
The survey found that 37% of Americans gave President Obama a grade of “D” or “F” compared to only 22% from a survey conducted in February 2009 after President Obama’s first 30 days in office. Additionally, 54% gave him a grade of “A” or “B” in February 2009 compared to only 37% in January 2010.
Despite these lower grades, and the troubles that have continued to plague the U.S. housing market, the survey found that the “American Dream” of homeownership continues to be alive and well with more than three out of four (76%) Americans considering owning a home as a part of achieving their personal American dream.
Democrats and Republicans agree on the areas President Obama needs to focus on in 2010 to stabilize the U.S. real estate market. Creating jobs and job security continues to be at the top of the list with 62% of respondents referencing it as a key priority.
Real Estate Industry Expert Quotes:
“One thing is certain, there is no easy fix and we have a long road ahead until we see a healthy real estate market. I’ve said before and I will say it again, we will continue to see lots of volatility in the housing market through 2010.” -Pete Flint, CEO of Trulia
“Americans feel President Obama has fallen short on his promise to bring stability to the US Housing Market after his first year as President.” -Pete Flint, CEO of Trulia
“I absolutely agree that job creation and job security has to be the #1 priority of President Obama.” -Pete Flint, CEO of Trulia
“I also agree with consumers that reducing the number of foreclosures has to be a primary focus for the President and his administration. Growing foreclosures is a trend that absolutely needs to be reversed.” -Pete Flint, CEO of Trulia
“The Obama administration’s actions, and actions that were taken prior to the administration taking over, have not given the housing market the ability to be self-sustaining… We still have a housing market that is still heavily dependent on government help, and I think the primary solution in a very general sense has to be on job creation.”-Jonathan Miller, President and CEO of Miller Samuel
“I’m not suggesting that we go back to where we were a few years ago but when you think of a financial institution at the current time and they’re looking at balance sheet pressures for capitalization, they’re looking at declining housing prices, elevated unemployment at a rate that’s double what it was just two years ago and increased layoffs. They’re really only interested, in the general terms, in very clean, vanilla-type lending products.” -Jonathan Miller, President and CEO of Miller Samuel
“The only way to ease the situation is to create an environment where you have a lot more employment and that is something the administration hasn’t been able to accomplish over the last year.” -Jonathan Miller, President and CEO of Miller Samuel
“The biggest challenge that is ahead of us and no one is even talking about is the exit strategy for the housing sector from this dramatic federal involvement.” -Howard Glaser, Principal of The Glaser Group
“We’ve seen that unwinding begin in some of the other federal support bailout programs, such as the TARP money to banks, etc., but not so much on the housing side because we need to be in there right now. No one wants to talk about how you unwind Fannie and Freddie Mac and these other interventions.” - Howard Glaser, Principal of The Glaser Group
Popularity: 10% [?]
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January 28th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Our country was already UPSIDE DOWN before Obama stepped in, remember Oct 2008, Bush was still President, when our American financial economy basically and ultimately “COLLAPSED”… I’m an independent thinker, not a “Party Liner”, I’ll vote on the ISSUES not on a party line! You really can’t expect 8 years of misery to be overturned in 1 year. The average American wasn’t paying attention to what was going on, we were just buying, selling and going to wars, without any attention to where the jobs were going, the outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries, where our education policies were heading (in the garbage), lack of funds for retraining uneducated Americans and we were all just having fun, fun, fun and not listening, watching or reacting to WHAT WAS REALLY GOING ON!!! BTW: This is NOT a party decision, both sides of Congress was wrong, BOTH… Please jump off the party liners, it’s getting really, really old… Yes, our health care is a mess, our family didn’t have health care for 1-1/2 years!!! I’ve been there… Insurance companies are making out financially ON YOU, if that’s what you want, you can have it! They are even trying to enter the Canadian market, because they realize “things will change”. If health care doesn’t change soon, you can kiss “Private small & medium sized businesses good bye” or “they might “eliminate all health care altogether” due to cost overheads to their companies. Then where will most American be? If we solve the health care issue, then small, medium & larger businesses will put money back in the U.S.A. instead of leaving the country! ;>)
January 28th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
I would like to get copies of the Data that Pete Flint mentioned in the Listen to Trulia’s Real Estate of the Union Industry Call. He mentioned a link. I could not find it. Can someone please send it to me?
January 29th, 2010 at 2:32 am
I was disappointed that the issue concerning real estate and foreclosure was not even mentioned during his speech.
February 1st, 2010 at 1:52 am
It was a very interesting discussion. We’ll just have to wait to see how this whole macro picture unfolds.
February 1st, 2010 at 5:42 pm
Very clever title and I really enjoyed the quotes at the end. Thank you for the post.