A Quarter of American Homeowners Are Delaying the Purchase of a New or Existing Home Due to the Current Economic Climate

New York, NY (Oct. 29, 2008) - Over a quarter of homeowners (27%) say that the current U.S. economic environment is causing them to put their plans on hold for the purchase of a new or existing home, according to a new Ipsos Public Affairs poll conducted on behalf of Realogy.

Non-white homeowners (46%), homeowners under 35 (38%), parents with children under 18 (33%), those with a household income of less than $50,000 (33%) are among those most likely to be say they are putting off purchasing a home because of the state of the economy.

Despite the current hesitance to buy a new or existing home, nine in ten homeowners (91%) agree that owning a home is still the best long-term investment they can make with their money. Nearly three quarters (72%) say that aside from shelter, they primarily see their current residence as a long-term investment.

Congruent with this perspective, majorities of homeowners see renting as a waste of money, as 87% agree that over the long-term, paying rent for housing is like throwing money away. Similarly, 95% of homeowners would rather own than rent their homes.

These are some of the findings of a poll conducted October 23-25, 2008 by Ipsos Public Affairs. For the survey, a nationally representative, randomly selected sample of 1,023 homeowners adults across the United States were interviewed by Ipsos. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate within 1773.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire homeowners' population in the U.S. been polled. The margin of error will be larger for sub-groups of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual U.S. population according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

For more information on this news release, please contact: Nicolas Boyon Senior Vice President Ipsos Public Affairs (646) 364-7583 [email protected]

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