The National Association of Realtors has released its 2011 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, a survey of 5,708 home buyers and sellers that studies the demographics and features of both the individuals involved and the properties they were buying or selling.
The latest survey from the NAR has uncovered a litany of fascinating data on U.S. homebuyers.
Among the main changes documented in the profile are:
- More homebuyers are married, older, and earn higher incomes than in 2010, a clear result of the economic recession.
- Homebuyers are becoming less and less diverse, with an astounding 85 percent of respondents identifying themselves as Caucasian.
- Consumers still cite an inherent desire for homeownership as their number one reason for buying, though affordability is now a close second.
- The second home market is healthy, with an additional five percent of respondents reporting they own a second or even third home. As with regular homebuyers, though, they are married, much older, and earn much higher incomes.
New home construction, as expected, did not fair well in the profile, with the market share of the property type at 15 percent, the same place that it’s been the last two years. Single-family detached homes, also expectedly, were the most popular property at 77 percent of the market, while only eight percent purchased townhouses and nine percent a condominium. Interestingly, first-time buyers were “slightly more likely” to purchase the latter two properties than repeat buyers.
The profile even documented the areas that the properties were bought. 18 percent of buyers bought in a small town, 18 percent in an urban area and 11 percent in a rural area. First-time buyers were more prone to urban dwellings, and the suburbs remained popular with repeat buyers, comprising 36 percent of purchases.
Even with all the data just listed, that’s a mere snapshot of all the information available in the report. For more, consult this excellent report from Agent Genius, which posts six full pages of data from the profile.