Will a new U.S. President improve the housing market?

Most home buyers think not. Less than half, only 44 percent, believe the housing market will improve once the U.S. has a new president, according to a Harris Interactive survey commissioned by Move, Inc., the operator of the Realtor.com Web site.

Women were more inclined than men to believe the housing market will improve after Inauguration Day.

However, most home buyers, 81 percent of them, remain nervous about their prospects in the current housing market.

That's because, buyers said, they are concerned about barriers that exist between them and home ownership.

Among those barriers, the cost of a down payment, insufficient income, lack of confidence in the economy and still high home prices, were the most common sources of concern.

That doesn't mean consumers have given up on home ownership.

More than half of renters who plan to buy a home someday will do so in the next five years. Among current home owners, 41 percent plan to buy again, the study said.

And they'll sacrifice to put their own roof over their head.

Nearly 80 percent of consumers surveyed would be willing to save more, earn extra income, compromise on neighborhood features and skip some home amenities in order to buy a home right now.

Still consumers, 84 percent of them, find some aspect of home buying intimidating. Afraid of getting stuck with the wrong home and the process of taking out a mortgage were among the most intimidating aspects, the survey said.

The study was conducted online between May 21 and 23, 2008 among 2,462 U.S. adults ages 18 and older, of whom 1,377 plan to buy a home in the current real estate market.

Published: July 22, 2008

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.