What Are American Homeowners Smoking?

That whole American-optimism thing is mighty tough to kill, even when reality does its best to beat it down.

Case in point: Online real estate firm Zillow.com says 81 percent of American homeowners think the value of their homes won’t decline this year. We believe in that better future just around the corner, even though 83 percent of our homes lost value in the past 12 months.

Of course, it probably helps us stay optimistic as long as we’re deluding ourselves about our home’s value in the first place. And a lot of us are. The survey says 60 percent of homeowners believe their place lost value in the past year, resulting in what Zillow calls a home value misperception index of 13.

At least some of us, about 29 percent, are so optimistic we’d be at least somewhat likely to sell our homes if we see an upturn in the market.

And who knows? There may be reason for all this optimism. In another report earlier this month, Zillow said housing prices were still falling, just not as fast as they had been in previous quarters. That was taken as a hopeful sign.

So maybe the optimists are right. But don’t hold your breath if you’re waiting for your house to actually increase in value, says Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries. There are still lots of homes for sale, lots of foreclosures, and lots of homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. Those are not exactly the signals of a boom in the making.

“Hope springs eternal for the U.S. homeowner,” Humphries said in a statement. “Each quarter homeowners express the opinion that the worst is behind them. Unfortunately, that has not been the case thus far, and it’s far from clear that it’s the case today.”