RealtyPartner Finds No Progress in 2011 Real Estate Market

According to research by RealtyPartner.com and Zillow, housing prices are still falling and home values decreased another 3 percent in the first quarter.

The data found sales of properties worth $100,000 to $500,000 were lower this past March than in March 2010, and these properties account for 60 percent of the U.S. housing market. Proof, RealtyPartner claims, that middle-income Americans are still concerned about their own job security and remain hesitant to get back into the real estate market.

The Zillow and RealtyPartner research finds numerous causes for the stagnant housing market including stricter loan requirements, an uncapped real estate tax, a lack of consumer confidence, and uneven expectations between buyers and sellers.

Mitchell Hochberg, Principal at New York City-based Madden Real Estate Ventures believes consumer confidence is the most important factor to the success of the housing market, which still has foreclosures affecting one in every 200 homes.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, home ownership dropped to 66.4 percent in the first quarter, a level not seen in the U.S. since 1998.

But Head of Communications at Trulia, a real estate information website, Ken Shuman believes returning to this level is not necessarily a bad thing.

“A lot of people bought homes who shouldn’t have been able to buy homes,” he said. 

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