There is a growing rebellion in real estate circles against President Barack Obama. And blue state Massachusetts, of all things, is leading the way.

A whopping 78 percent of Massachusetts Realtors “strongly disapprove” of Obama’s performance as president, according to a new survey from online real estate marketing firm HomeGain.

It is by far the highest level of discontent among real estate agents in any major state, including other liberal bastions New York, New Jersey and California, according to the survey.

Obama’s plunging poll numbers among Realtors points to a much bigger problem when it comes to the president’s reelection hopes – a muddled housing strategy that took an already messed-up housing market and made it worse.

“It’s the lack of any meaningful recovery in the housing market, in spite of expensive Obama signature programs,” that has disillusioned so many Realtors, noted Louis Cammarosano, a HomeGain spokesman. “Generally, it’s the realization that hope and change don’t pay the bills.”

A Muddled Mix

For the president, it has certainly been a long fall from grace, especially here in Massachusetts.

While Obama has lost popularity among New York and New Jersey real estate agents, those who “strongly disapprove” of his performance in those states have yet to reach the 50 percent mark.

While it’s safe to say that Realtors can be more conservative than your average voter, real estate agents in Massachusetts and across the country were fairly supportive of Obama when he made his stirring inaugural speech in January of 2009.

Only 19 percent of Massachusetts Realtors polled by HomeGain had a strong, negative impression of the president in early 2009. By contrast, 65 percent of real agent agents polled then either “somewhat approved” or “strongly approved” of his performance.

But after that initial burst of good feeling, it has been pretty much all downhill since.

Obama’s negative ratings among Bay State Realtors steadily grew from that point, sliding past the 50 percent mark a year later in 2010, as the real estate market began to stumble again.

So why have normally sunny real estate sales folk turned so hard against Obama, no slouch himself when it comes to dishing out the happy talk? Look no farther than today’s sinking home prices and anemic sales.

Determined to make a bold stroke, Obama poured his energies and political capital into health care reform, treating the housing market as a sideshow.

But the muddled mix of indecisive housing policies the Obama administration has either promoted or proposed has only made matters worse.

High on the list of gripes Realtors have towards Obama is the homebuyer tax credit.

That initiative, which cost billions, provided only a “transitory” boost to the market, HomeGain’s Cammarosano said.

That’s too polite – I’d argue it is one of the worst economic gimmicks of all-time. And while Congress pushed this boondoggle, the Obama administration’s finger prints are all over it.

The $8,000 credit created a temporary – and artificial – surge in demand, only to send the real estate market off the cliff in the summer of 2010 after the program expired.

It was an all too predictable result.

Hence the double dip in home prices and sales we have seen since then, generating downward momentum that now threatens to swamp the economy.

Coming Attractions

The Obama administration has also blown billions more with its tepid and timid effort to help homeowners facing foreclosure to refinance their mortgages.

The Home Affordable Modification Program program has become a symbol of all that can go wrong with a government program. The idea was to encourage lenders, with some modest incentives, to refinance loans. But the effort has been a disaster, with hundreds of thousands seeking help only to find themselves ensnared in a nightmarish governmental and corporate bureaucratic morass.

Among other oddities, homeowners have to be behind on their payments to qualify for help, offering up a stark choice of continuing to struggle to make payments or opting to become a temporary deadbeat in a desperate bid to get a more affordable mortgage.

Maybe Obama was betting the real estate market would heal itself. Or maybe he just got distracted with health care. Either way, he’s made a mess of the housing market, and real estate agents here in Massachusetts and nationwide know it.

And unless Obama can start turning around things in the troubled real estate market, and turning them around fast, the shellacking he just got in the HomeGain survey may be just a preview of coming attractions.