I’m actually not shocked by this poll at all. Most of the people I’ve observed have heard about the downturn, but don’t think it affects them. Why should it? They still have pretty easy access to HELOC’s and such. They haven’t seen any effects from the rise in interest rates (yet). Until they are affected… they are un-affected.
It was this comment in the poll that I see causing some real pain over the next 5 years for those who are still rosy:
Indeed, 69 percent reported that they’re confident enough that they are likely to renovate or make some improvement in their home during the next 12 months, and 27 percent said they are likely to be moving on up, if not to the East Side, at least to a better house sometime in the next five years.
They won’t really understand what it means to have the bottom cut out of a market until they are the ones trying to sell and “move on up”. I just LOVE to read how the “experts” still think this “problem” is only in sub-prime. It’s like these people truly don’t understand how this whole system operates. I guess it’s also why people keep falling for ponzi schemes.
After a year or two of that, you’ll start seeing more people in the “upper” levels (an identifiable number) having trouble selling as those people in the “mid” level can’t sell and move up like they had planned.
I have never thought that this would be one big uniform “crash”. Because it will never really happen that way, people will continue to “not” think this is happening at all… just like the people in this poll.
