Stocks Better Investment Than Homes: Prof. Shiller
By: Housing will not be an "exciting market" over the next five years and investors would do better to put money into stocks, Yale Economics Professor Robert Shiller told CNBC on Monday.
The co-founder of the Case-Shiller Home Price Index said in a "Squawk Box" interview, "There are positive signs [in housing] definitely. But I'm not confident at all that [prices] will keep going up."
He advised, "You'd do better to invest in farmland or stocks. There are lots of alternatives." But he did warn that farmland might be nearing a bubble.
"The CME futures market has [home prices] increasing 1 to 2 percent, in real terms, for the next 5 years," Shiller said, adding that prices could just as easily drop by that amount.
(Read More: Americans Are Tapping Into Home Equity Again)
There are a number of factors that could influence housing over the long term, he predicted, such as the direction of the economies of Europe and Asia to the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the mortgage tax deduction in the U.S.
"What happens to our attitudes toward housing and what kind of housing we want? Maybe we're becoming a more urban society? Maybe we don't care so much about McMansions," he added. "All these things are in the mix."
(Read More: Housing Already Shows Signs of a New Bubble)
He also looked to history and questioned whether the American economy can really get moving again in the near term. "After a major financial crisis, we've had a decade of weak performance in the economy. So we may be halfway through a weak period."
Taken together, he said, "[Housing] is not going to be an exciting market. Excitement will be somewhere else."
—By CNBC's Matthew J. Belvedere; Follow him on Twitter @Matt_SquawkCNBC
