Home Values May Prove Political Football in Battleground States
Tags: election 2012, home prices, home values, housing values, real estate news, real estate values, selling houses
Home values dropped an average of 16% in 15 of 16 key presidential battleground states since the financial crisis. Despite this key fact most of the Republican presidential candidates have chosen to be largely silent on what they would do to end the housing crisis. They have preferred to concentrate on jobs and unemployment issues.
The Progressive Policy Institute points out that 2/3 of the voters in the key battleground states own homes, a number that is much greater than that of the unemployed in any of these states. Potentially, many more voters have been negatively affected by tumbling home values than by joblessness. As many as 12 million homeowners now have underwater mortgages. The states that have lost the greatest value between November 2010 and November 2011 include: Nevada (91%); Minnesota (74%); Arizona (72%); Missouri (69%); Florida (64%); North Carolina (62%); Wisconsin (61%); New Hampshire (59%); Ohio (57%); Colorado (57%); Pennsylvania (56%); Indiana (53%); Michigan (53%); Iowa (51%); Virginia (48%); New Mexico (43%). Many of these are battleground states that must be won to sew up the election for any presidential candidate.
The PPI report asserts that housing must be part of any candidate’s economy policy in order to win the election in 2012.













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