Existing and prospective homeowners are split about which presidential candidate is better for real estate.
Opinions differed between current and prospective homeowners. For current homeowners, 33% favored Donald Trump, while 31% picked Hillary Clinton. Meanwhile, 35% of prospective homeowners prefer Clinton, as opposed to just 27% who feel Trump would have a more positive impact.
"A much larger percentage of survey respondents admitted they 'don't know' which candidate will be best for real estate," Gino Blefari, chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, said in a news release. "It will be interesting to see who will embrace the housing needs of Americans and put forth the best case for positively impacting our real estate market."
Berkshire Hathaway found in its Homeowner Sentiment Survey conducted in June that 66% of existing homeowners view the real estate market favorably, representing a five-percentage-point increase from the spring.
The group that had the largest increase in optimism toward the market was baby boomers, 60% of whom view the market favorably, up six percentage points. And 72% of baby boomers cite interest rates as the cause for their optimism.
Meanwhile, the most optimistic generation was millennials. Among respondents ages 18 to 34, 76% said they view housing favorably. But millennials were less likely to view current mortgage rates as low — 53% of them said they were average versus just 13% who believe they are indeed low.
Berkshire Hathaway interviewed more than 2,400 current and prospective homeowners in June for the survey.
