NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- More than half of Americans think home prices will go up over the next 12 months, according to a new Bankrate.com (NYSE: RATE) report. Just eight percent expect home prices to decline, compared with the 53% who think home prices will rise. The results were consistent across gender, age, income and education levels.

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"Housing, like the stock market, is something consumers look to as an indicator for whether things are headed in the right direction," said Greg McBride, CFA, Bankrate.com's chief financial analyst. "When home prices fall, everyone gets a little queasy - homeowners and renters alike. The expectation of continued home price increases underscores an expectation for continued improvement in the job market, household finances and the overall economy."

Last year at this time, 55% of Americans correctly forecast that home prices would rise over the ensuing 12 months and nine percent wrongly predicted a decline.

Bankrate.com's Financial Security Index registered 100.4 in September, indicating improvement over one year ago as well as over the past two months. The Financial Security Index has been over 100 (the level that illustrates improvement over the past year) in seven of the first nine months of 2014. It was above 100 in six of the first nine months of 2013, just two of nine months to start 2012 and none of the first nine months of 2011.


    --  September brought a big divergence on feelings of financial security
        between men and women. Not only did men's feelings of financial security
        improve, but they improved on all five components compared to last
        month's reading. Women's feelings were the exact opposite, falling on
        all five components compared to last month.


    --  Job security is an area of particular strength this month, with 26% of
        Americans feeling more secure in their jobs and just 14% feeling less
        secure than one year ago.


    --  Net worth showed continued improvement, with 27% of Americans reporting
        higher net worth compared to 20% reporting lower net worth than one year
        ago. Record highs in the stock market as well as continued increases in
        home prices contributed to these readings.

The survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRAI) and can be seen in its entirety here:

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/consumer-index/financial-security-charts-0914.aspx

PSRAI obtained telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,003 adults living in the continental United States. Interviews were conducted by landline (501) and cell phone (502, including 294 without a landline phone) in English and Spanish by Princeton Data Source from September 4-7, 2014. Statistical results are weighted to correct known demographic discrepancies. The margin of sampling error for the complete set of weighted data is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

About Bankrate, Inc.

Bankrate is a leading publisher, aggregator, and distributor of personal finance content on the Internet. Bankrate provides consumers with proprietary, fully researched, comprehensive, independent and objective personal finance editorial content across multiple vertical categories including mortgages, deposits, insurance, credit cards, and other categories, such as retirement, automobile loans, and taxes. The Bankrate network includes Bankrate.com, CreditCards.com and InsuranceQuotes.com, our flagship websites, and other owned and operated personal finance websites, including Caring.com, Interest.com, Bankaholic.com, Mortgage-calc.com, CreditCardGuide.com, Nationwide Card Services, CarInsuranceQuotes.com, InsureMe, CreditCards.ca, and NetQuote.com. Bankrate aggregates rate information from over 4,800 institutions on more than 300 financial products. With coverage of nearly 600 local markets in all 50 U.S. states, Bankrate generates over 172,000 distinct rate tables capturing on average over three million pieces of information daily. Bankrate develops and provides web services to over 80 co-branded websites with online partners, including some of the most trusted and frequently visited personal finance sites on the Internet such as Yahoo!, AOL, CNBC, and Bloomberg. In addition, Bankrate licenses editorial content to over 500 newspapers on a daily basis including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe.

For more information:

Caroline Farhat
Publicist, Bankrate, Inc.
caroline.farhat@bankrate.com
(917) 368-8638

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SOURCE Bankrate, Inc.