Peter Coy

How bad was 2008 for investors? So bad that a poll commissioned by BusinessWeek shows that Warren Buffett kept his oracular reputation—even though shares of his Berkshire Hathaway fell by a third through mid-December. After all, lots of people did worse. Buffett was the runaway favorite choice of investors as an ideal source of 15 minutes of financial advice.

Despite the horrendous performance of equities, stocks are more popular now than five years ago, possibly because investors figure stocks can only go up. Real estate, the former favorite, was tarnished by the housing crash. For some reason, almost twice as many women as men think it’s the best investment.

BusinessWeek Research Services conducted online interviews with 941 U.S. adults from Nov. 20 to Nov. 25.