America This Week Wave 232

America This Week: Hidden Olympic Viewing, Parents are Overscheduled, Is AI Your New Financial Advisor? And Breaking Down Homebuying Myths

The latest trends in society and culture from The Harris Poll

With less than one hundred days to the election, this week’s tepid job report rekindled concerns over a soft landing. This includes housing. A recent HSH analysis finds that Homeownership in the largest U.S. cities is further out of reach. (A household would need over $400k to afford a median-priced home in San Jose). Our America This Week tracker, conducted August 1st to 3rd among 2,118 Americans, finds a dismal outlook on homeownership: (59%) believe the American Dream of owning a home is dead. Yikes. Would a rate cut help the national mood?

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Ok, this week, we’ll delve into four new Harris polls that caught our interest:

• First, we coined quiet vacationing this summer. Now it’s quiet Olympic watching.
• Next, parenting is a grind, but scheduling kids’ activities pushes many to the brink.
• Then, we find A.I. may be your next financial advisor.
• Lastly, we discover the myths that are persisting in the homebuying process.

Olympics Are The Latest Way To Dodge Work: UKG-Harris Poll

The 2024 Summer Olympics are in full swing, and ratings for the first three days jumped (79%) from the Tokyo Games. This is not a good thing for workforce productivity; our UKG Workforce poll finds in Inc.

• With Paris six to nine hours ahead of the U.S., workers are often watching from their desks, we’ve surmised from this poll:
• Six in ten (59%) of employed Americans plan to watch the Summer Olympics.
• And of those, (65%) say they’ll watch for more than an hour, while (7%) plan to tune in for “six or more hours.”
• For some workers, it’s an intentional excuse to slack off: (30%) expect to be less productive at work because they’ll wake up early or stay up late to watch the Games.  Men’s basketball, men’s soccer, women’s gymnastics, and women’s basketball are expected to be the biggest culprits.
• One in five who plan to watch the Games say they’ve talked to their managers about taking time off to watch and found managers supportive.

Takeaway: Even in this economy, it’s hard for managers to fight The Olympics. Yet there could be benefits for companies being flexible. In another recent survey from Monday.com, (34%) said that moving a team meeting for an Olympics viewing “shows flexibility and can boost morale.” So, don’t be surprised if some of your team members are hard to reach.

Parents Have Had It With Calendaring – Household Management: Skylight-Harris Poll

We know the mental load of parenting is heavy. But our new study with Skylight in Forbes shows how much time (and economic value) is lost in menial tasks like scheduling.

• Parents say they dedicate 259 hours annually to scheduling-related tasks. This stems from families receiving an average of 17.5 weekly communications about their children’s activities, totaling over 900 messages annually.
• Additionally, parents spend 100.2 hours annually on holiday and break planning.
• Our analysis finds that if U.S. parents were compensated, it would have a staggering economic value of $3.8 trillion.

Takeaway: For all the potential promise of AI, parents might need it the most. Many revealed that the extensive time devoted to organizing activities detracts from time spent with their partners. And nearly half report that these scheduling issues lead to arguments and miscommunications. Almost one in four have turned to couples therapy specifically to manage the stress and challenges posed by family scheduling demands.

Is A.I. Your Next Financial Advisor? MoneyLion-Harris Poll

Will AI manage your 401K and ETFs? According to our recent research with MoneyLion, AI adoption for financial guidance may be headed for the mainstream.

• About seven in ten Americans (69%) are using/planning to use AI to research financial topics or gather financial guidance.
• Nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) believe AI can improve their financial decision-making process, while (40%) say it could help them grow their financial knowledge faster and help provide personalized insights and budgeting suggestions (35%).
• However, a healthy dose of caution remains: (62%) are concerned about their personal information leaking in data breaches when using AI to research financial topics or for financial guidance.

Takeaway: While there is a strong interest in using AI to research financial topics or for financial guidance, concerns about data security are prevalent. This dual sentiment highlights the need for enhanced security measures to gain consumer trust in AI-driven financial solutions.

Homeownership Myths Hit The Market: KB Home-Harris Poll

Buying a home can be daunting, and there are many misconceptions about the process; our study with KB Home finds in Builder Magazine. Here, we try to break down fact from fiction:

• First, over half (54%) of Americans believe that mortgage rates are at an all-time high. (They’re not).
• Only (56%) identified the meaning of APR, and (54%) knew what PMI was. Gen Z and Millennials are less likely to be familiar with the terms.
• Additionally, only (36%) knew that a minimum down payment of (20%) isn’t required to purchase a home, and fewer (28%) knew one could qualify for a mortgage with a credit score in the 500s.

Takeaway: The survey confirmed that four in five American adults believe owning a home is an essential milestone in life, but the findings also revealed that many are discouraged and lack an understanding of the home-buying process. But this isn’t the first time Americans came up short on a pop quiz. With The Guardian, we found that (56%) wrongfully believed the U.S. was in a recession this year.