There’s no shortage of issues the presidential candidates must be prepared to contend with if elected – with the foreclosure crisis and what to do with the secondary mortgage market ranking close to the top of the list. A recent survey commissioned by Seattle-based Zillow.com shows 58 percent of Americans think that Barack Obama will better address the current state of the housing market than John McCain (42 percent).

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, among current homeowners, 52 percent think Obama will better address the market versus the 48 percent who think McCain will. The spread between the two major candidates is much wider among non-homeowners: 67 percent of these voters think Obama will better address the housing market, the survey revealed.
Zillow.com’s survey also showed that 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 ranking varied based on which candidate respondents backed. For example, of those respondents 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.
The online survey of 2,016 U.S. adults was conducted by market research firm Harris Interactive on behalf of real estate Web site Zillow.com.