Christopher Mayer, senior vice dean at the Columbia Business School's Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate in New York, said he expects the market to bottom early next year with the hardest hit states, including Nevada, Arizona, and Florida, taking longer.
"When this eventually turns, I think this is going to turn more quickly than people think," Mayer said. "There's a lot of pent-up demand."
4% Decline
Moody's Analytics forecasts that home prices will bottom out by September, with a decline of about 4 percent from December 2010 in the S&P/Case-Shiller index of values in 20 cities. The index will rise slowly through 2012, though growth won't reach about 5 percent until the following year, according to Andres Carbacho-Burgos, associate director at the West Chester, Pennsylvania-based risk-management consultants. Prices nationwide won't regain the 2006 peak until about 2022.
The Trulia and RealtyTrac survey was conducted by Harris Interactive from April 15 through April 19 and included 2,018 U.S. adults. The sample included 1,257 homeowners, 906 of whom currently have a mortgage, and 704 renters.