Worried about home prices? Here's who to vote for

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Seven years after its worst collapse since the Great Depression, the U.S housing market seems to be getting back on its feet.

But will the recovery last? If you own a home, are you wondering whether its value will rise or fall in next four years? If you're shopping for a new place to live, you may be waiting to see if the recent price run-up will keep going. Should you wait for another pullback?

Before you sign on the dotted line, you may want to consider which presidential candidate you should vote for.

To help you decide which lever to pull (or chad to punch), a recent survey of housing experts found that the outcome of the November election will have a clear impact on the trajectory of house prices.

The analysis comes from a quarterly poll from Zillow, a real estate research and listing service, which asked its panel of experts how the November presidential election would affect their expectations for the housing market and overall economic outlook.

According to the experts: Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders would set back the housing market recovery. Along with the overall prospects for economic growth.

The panel would rather see voters elect a candidate with more centrist views espoused by candidates like Democrat and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who suspended his campaign after the survey was conducted.

Overall, the pool of more than 100 housing experts forecast home prices will rise by 4 percent by the end of this year, up from expectations of 3.7 percent in the last quarterly survey. But if Sanders or Trump is elected, they said, those forecasts would be scaled back.

Though he has suspended his campaign, the survey respondents ranked Kasich's centrist views as the most favorable for the housing market. They were most put off by Sanders' socialist ideas and Trump's unpredictability. Clinton received mostly positive ratings.

The survey found that "the more centrist candidates from either party would be best for the economy and housing market," according to Zillow chief economist Svenja Gudell. "Respondents saw the more polarizing political leanings of Donald Trump and Sen. Sanders as having a negative effect."

Of course, there are wider forces at work on the housing market than the presidential campaign.

Who's healthier, Clinton or Trump? A poll provides an answer

Half of the survey respondents said the recent bump in home prices owes more to low inventory than other factors like low mortgage interest rates or wage and job growth.

And while many critics of the Federal Reserve's policy of keeping interest rates low worry that cheap mortgages could spark another housing bubble, nearly two-thirds of those surveyed by Zillow dismissed that idea.

The experts forecast, on average, home price increases of just 1.7 percent a year for the rest of this decade.

While that marks a sharp slowdown from the 3.6 percent rise since 2012, it's more in line with the price increases in decade before the housing bubble, according to Zillow researchers.