(Kitco News, Thurs. May 11th, 2023) – Gold is catching up to real estate as the best long-term investment, with American investors’ perceptions shifting due to higher interest rates and increased stock market uncertainty.
The number one preferred long-term investment asset remained real estate, but it dropped significantly from last year’s record-high approval of 45% down to 34% in 2023, according to the latest Gallup poll. “Higher interest rates over the past year have cooled the housing market, dampening consumer exuberance about real estate as an investment,” the survey said.
The view that gold is the best long-term investment jumped from 15% in 2022 to 26% — the highest levels since 2012. Gold has overtaken stocks as the second-most preferred investment and has come close to the number one spot, with more than a quarter of Americans viewing gold as the best long play.
“Gold tends to be the beneficiary when confidence levels in both real estate and stocks are down. This is typically during times of economic recession or uncertainty, as happened around the time of the Great Recession, and is happening again today,” Gallup said.
In the meantime, Americans lost faith in stocks/mutual funds as a long-term investment, with preference falling from last year’s 24% to this year’s 18%.
The percentage of investors preferring savings accounts/CDs as best investments saw an uptick from 9% in 2022 to 13% in 2023. The preference for bonds rose from 4% to 7%.
The approval of the crypto space following the collapse of FTX dropped to 4%. Last year, 8% of Americans considered the cryptocurrency market the best investment, putting it ahead of bonds.
The survey was conducted between April 3 and April 25 and sampled 1,013 American adults at random. The poll has been running every year in April as part of the Economy and Personal Finance survey since 2011.
The respondents were asked: “Which of the following do you think is the best long-term investment — [bonds, real estate, savings accounts or CDs, stocks or mutual funds, (or) gold]?”
The crypto option has been offered only in the past two years and is presented to a random half-sample of respondents, according to the survey.
Posted by:
Jack Dempsey, President
401 Gold Consultants LLC
jdemp2003@gmail.com