Friday, January 17, 2014

Profile of a Home Buyer

What are home buyers looking for?  Who is buying property these days?  Do most buyers work with a Realtor? 


The National Association of Realtors conducted a survey to find answers to these and other questions.  Below are some of the findings related to home buyers in 2013.


Characteristics of Home Buyers


  • 37% of recent home buyers were first-time buyers, which is still at a suppressed level from the historical norm of 40%.
  • The typical buyer was 42-years-old, while the typical first-time buyer was 31 and the typical repeat buyer was 52.
  • 66% of recent home buyers were married couples - the highest share since 2001.


Characteristics of Home Search Process


  • For 42% of home buyers (as compared to 35% in 2011), the first step in the home buying process was looking online for properties.
  • The use of the Internet in the home search rose slightly to 92%.
  • Real estate agents were viewed as a useful information source by 87% of buyers who used an agent while searching for a home.
  • The typical home buyers searched for 12 weeks and viewed 10 homes.
  • For more than half of buyers finding the right home was the most difficult step in the home buying process.


Home Buying and Real Estate Professionals


  • 88% of buyers purchased their home through a real estate agent or broker - a share that has steadily increased from 69% in 2001. (This has increased nearly 20% in the last 10 years!)
  • 42% of buyers found their agent through a referral from a friend or family member and 12% used an agent they had used before to buy or sell a home. Both figures have increased over the past few years even in today's Internet age. Although a newly added statistic states 12% of buyers used online recommendations when searching for an agent and it influenced half of those buyers.
  • About 2/3 of recent buyers only interviewed one agent before they found the agent they worked with.
  • More than half of buyers reported what they want most from their real estate agent is to find them the right home to purchase.

I'll provide additional information on home sellers in an upcoming post.  In the meantime, as always, let me know if I can help!



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