While the majority of Americans polled are very stable and secure when it comes to their housing situation, 44% are not!
The poll results below came from a survey that was conducted on behalf of the MacArthur Foundation designed to ‘develop a deeper understanding of the experiences, attitudes, and perceptions about housing, particularly of people living in tenuous housing situations.’
In other words the purpose of the study was to determine if the housing crisis is indeed over or is still looming large in the minds of many Americans.
And while we cannot verify whether the study was conducted in a purely unbiased way in terms of the way in which the data was collected, the findings are quite interesting none-the-less:
How Housing Matters:
The Housing Crisis Continues to Loom Large in the Experiences and Attitudes of the American Public
1. The concerns and challenges related to affordable quality housing are
real and tangible for many Americans. Most recognize that many
people in their own communities face serious housing challenges; in
fact, many have had to make sacrifices themselves in recent years to
maintain their housing.
2. This survey brings to light the different perspectives and life
experiences of those who are on fairly solid footing with their housing
as compared with those who are not. The survey tells a story of very
different realities in terms of tradeoffs that some people must make
and the worries and concerns that go along with those tradeoffs.
People living in tenuous housing situations:
• Identify finding quality affordable housing as a challenging endeavor at
high rates, especially true among renters;
• Have had to make tradeoffs to ensure that they can cover their rent or
mortgage payments at much higher rates than their more stable
counterparts have;
• Worry about housing and financial concerns at much higher rates than
those who do not find themselves in a challenging housing situation.
3. While economists and housing experts say that the housing crisis is
behind us, large proportions of the American people are not feeling
the relief. Very high proportions of the public continue to believe that
we are still in the midst of the housing crisis or that the worst is yet to
come.
4. Some indicators suggest that the American public’s views about the
housing crisis are shifting slightly toward the positive. For example,
we see an uptick in the proportion of the public who believe that the
housing crisis is behind us and a decrease in the proportion who
characterize the housing market as a serious problem.
However, even with these shifts, concerns about housing continue to
outweigh optimism, and the public has a real sense that affordable
housing is a challenge for many Americans.
Some of the MacArthur Foundation findings in chart form
The full report can be found here.
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