Most Americans feel it's a "good time" to buy a home

With low interest rates continuing to dominate the national real estate scene, a new report finds that most Americans feel that it's a buyer's market.

A Gallup poll released this week found that 67 percent of respondents feel that it is a good time to buy a home. While that's down slightly from survey results each of the last two years, it's up signficiantly from the 53 percent response from people surveyed in 2008.

At the same time, 30 percent of those polled felt that it wasn't a good time to buy a home, with home prices threatening to fall in many parts of the country. According to the report, 27 percent of participants felt that home prices in their area would fall over the next year, while 51 percent said they would remain level and 21 percent foresaw rising prices. That represented a flip-flop from last year's poll, when more people felt home values would increase than decrease.

However, those in the Houston real estate market aren't likely to see falling prices in 2011. A recent report by Clear Capital predicted home values would grow 3.6 percent this year.