Real estate industry leaders are mildly optimistic about what’s to come for housing but gloomy about the overall economy, according to real estate marketing tech firm Imprev Inc.’s latest “thought leader” survey.
More than half (56 percent) of the 260 broker-owner and top executive respondents to the survey conducted in late October believe the housing market will improve in the next 12 months, more than a third (35 percent) say it will stay the same and more than 95 percent say they’re either “very confident” (72 percent) or “somewhat confident” (24 percent) about the housing market in 2014.
Likewise, survey respondents were bullish on their firm’s success over the next year with 48 percent and 47 percent, respectively, indicating they were either “confident” or “somewhat confident” that their firms would be more profitable in 12 months than they were today.
As for the respondents’ outlook for the U.S. housing market over the next 12 months, 56 percent said it should improve, 35 percent said it would stay the same, and 7 percent said it would get worse. By comparison, 70 percent of last year’s respondents felt the U.S. economy would improve in the next 12 months.
That rosiness fades when respondents were asked about the general economy.
The percentage of respondents that said they had confidence in the U.S. economy dropped by more than half from last year (47 percent) to 21 percent. Global (16 percent in 2012 to 14 percent), state (65 percent to 39 percent) and local (77 percent to 46 percent) economic outlooks dropped, too, from last year’s survey.
Nearly half (46 percent) of the respondents felt like the U.S. economy would improve in the next 12 months, while 51 percent said it would stay the same and 13 percent said it would get worse.
