Many homeowners are eager to sell

Many American homeowners are eagerly waiting for home values to rise so they can sell their properties, a new report says.

Five percent of the nation?s homeowners said they would be likely to put their houses on the market in the next six months if they saw signs the real estate market was turning around, according to a quarterly survey released Thursday by Zillow. That means about 3.8 million homes could have ?for sale? signs.  In contrast, 5.2 million existing homes were sold in all of 2009.

Perceptions of the market?s vitality vary geographically, though.  More Western homeowners were more optimistic about the future of home prices in the second quarter than they were in the first quarter, with 38% believing values will go up the next six months, an increase from 34% in the first quarter. About 40% say prices have reached the bottom in their own neighborhoods.

Nationwide, homeowners were more pessimistic. Only a third of respondents said their local markets have hit bottom and the number of people who predicted that their property values will decrease in the next six months grew from 20% in the first quarter to 28% in the second quarter.

?Our forecast remains largely unchanged,? said Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow.com. ?We?re in an L-shaped recovery that will likely keep annualized home value appreciation very low for the next three to five years.?

-- Roger Vincent

Photo credit: Molly Riley / Reuters

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