SEATTLE, Sept. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- There's no shortage of issues presidential candidates must be prepared to contend with if elected and a new survey(1) shows 58 percent of Americans think that, between the two major candidates, Sen. Barack Obama will better address the current state of the housing market than Sen. John McCain (42 percent). The survey of 2,016 U.S. adults was conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of real estate Web site Zillow.com.

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The perception of who is better to address the housing market is heavily influenced by whether respondents own a home, which represents approximately two-thirds (64 percent) of U.S. adults, according to the survey. For example, the spread between the two major candidates is much wider among those who have yet to become homeowners: 67 percent of non-homeowners think Obama will better address the housing market than McCain (33 percent). Among current homeowners, there is far less of a difference: 52 percent of homeowners think Obama will better address the market versus the 48 percent who think McCain will.

Homeownership Influences Expectations for Which Candidate will Better Address State of the Housing Market

  Which Candidate Do you Think       U.S. Adults       Non-      Homeowners
   will Better Address the Current                  homeowners
   State of the Housing Market?       (n=2016)       (n=675)      (n=1341)

  Sen. Barack Obama                      58%           67%           52%
  Sen. John McCain                       42%           33%           48%

The survey also showed housing market issues are among the top three most important issues affecting the United States that the new president should be prepared to address after taking office. The most important issues are energy/gas prices (82 percent), U.S. debt (70 percent), and housing/mortgage/foreclosure (63 percent), although this varies based on which candidate respondents plan to vote for. For example, of the 41 percent who said they plan to vote for Obama in November, 71 percent think housing/mortgage/foreclosure issues are among the most important compared to 52 percent of those who plan to vote for McCain, which represents 30 percent of adults.

Most Important Issues the New President Should be Prepared to Address after Taking Office

  Top 10 Issues President Should
   be Prepared to Address After
   Taking Office*                      U.S.     Plan to vote   Plan to vote
                                      Adults      for Obama     for McCain
  Energy/gas prices                    82%           84%            81%
  U.S. debt                            70%           80%            55%
  Housing/mortgage/foreclosure
   issues                              63%           71%            52%
  Social Security                      61%           64%            58%
  Iraq                                 61%           68%            54%
  Homeland Security                    53%           47%            66%
  Immigration                          53%           42%            69%
  Education                            51%           63%            34%
  U.S. tax policy reform               50%           47%            55%
  Government reform/ethics             48%           49%            49%

  *Respondents were able to choose multiple issues.

According to the Zillow® survey, 14 percent of adults say they don't know who they plan to vote for, 6 percent declined to answer and 7 percent say they do not plan to vote in the upcoming presidential election.

(1)The survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive within the United States on behalf of Zillow.com between September 16, 2008 and September 18, 2009 among 2,016 adults ages 18+ of whom 1,341 are homeowners. This online survey is not based on probability samples and therefore no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. A full methodology, including weighting variables, is available.

About Zillow.com

Zillow.com is an online real estate community where homeowners, buyers, sellers, real estate agents and mortgage professionals find and share vital information about homes, for free. Launched in early 2006 with Zestimate® values and data on millions of U.S. homes, Zillow has since opened the site to community input, data and dialogue. One of the most-visited U.S. real estate Web sites, Zillow's goal is to help people become smarter about real estate in every stage of the home ownership process -- buying, selling, home improvement and financing. The company is headquartered in Seattle and has raised $87 million in funding.

Zillow.com, Zillow and Zestimate are registered trademarks of Zillow, Inc.

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SOURCE: Zillow.com

CONTACT: Katie Curnutte of Zillow.com, +1-206-757-2785,
press@zillow.com

Web Site: http://www.zillow.com/