Which Candidate Is Most Likely to Help the Housing Market? You’ll Be Surprised

We surveyed home sellers in late January to get their take on the market. Because it’s an election year, we also asked them a few questions about the presidential campaign. About 600 people responded.

So what did they say?

We gave people a choice of 10 candidates and asked who they thought would do the most to help the housing market. The winner was … none of the above. When it came to politics and housing, 23 percent of home sellers in our unscientific poll preferred “a different candidate” to the ones they have.
Bernie Sanders came in a close second, at 22 percent, and Donald Trump edged out Hillary Clinton for third place. Ted Cruz led the also-rans, which included Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush. (No, we don’t have the margin of error).

Most respondents said this year’s campaigning won’t affect housing one way or another, though a significant portion said the political uncertainty could put a damper on things.

Here’s something else

Only a fourth of respondents said housing is important election-year issue. In a way, that’s good. Seven years after the recession, the housing market has found its footing. We have bigger problems to worry about.