Are homeowners in denial?

Has your home lost value in the past year? If national reports about the slumping residential real estate market are true, then your home’s value probably has dropped. But the odds are good that you don’t think it has.

Chris Isidore, senior writer with CNNMoney.com, wrote an interesting story, which you can read here, about an online survey showing that three out of four U.S. homeowners believe that their own home has not lost value in the last year.

It’s like how people say they hate Congress, but love their own Senators and Representatives.

The story reports that of the 1,619 homeowners surveyed, 36 percent said they thought the value of their homes increased in value during the past year, while 41 percent said its value remained the same. Only 23 percent said their home lost value.

No wonder real estate agents have such a hard time convincing sellers to put their homes on the market for a reasonable price. The real estate market has changed, and homes are not selling for as much this year as they did just two years ago.

Unfortunately, it looks like, yes, homeowners are in denial about this depressing fact.