Survey: Americans view housing recovery as far-away goal

More than half of Americans think the nation won't see a sustained housing recovery for at least two years, according to a new survey that also shed light on consumers' potential moving plans over the next few months.

A Harris Interactive poll on behalf of RealtyTrac and Trulia found that while 27 percent of Americans think the real estate market will correct itself in 2012, a greater portion of consumers said recovery won't be experienced until after that year. Twenty-four percent said housing's resurgence will take place in 2013, 14 percent pinned it in 2014 and 22 percent said it won't happen until 2015 or later. That summed up to 58 percent of Americans taking a long-term view on the real estate market's recovery.

Experts say that moving into a new home might seem to many Americans to be a reality that's out of reach, particularly since key buyer perks have run dry.

"Government incentives have come and gone and historic lows in interest rates have done little to spur recovery," explained Pete Flint, the CEO at Trulia.

That's partly the reason national real estate trade groups have spoken out against government action that would scale back the mortgage interest deduction. Representatives from the National Association of Realtors and Mortgage Bankers Association are among many organisations which have said families moving into new homes lean on the tax deduction as a significant incentive to homebuying. 

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