Home might really be where the heart is. According to a new Zillow survey, 42% of recent homebuyers reported finding love after buying their new home.
Zillow surveyed 901 recent buyers and 993 prospective buyers in the fall of 2023 and found that more than two in five recent buyers found a love connection or a romantic relationship after moving into a new home that they purchased as a single person, contrary to the conventional order of love, then marriage — then homeownership.
That number is even higher among Gen Z homebuyers. Sixty-four percent of Gen Z respondents reported finding love after buying a home, followed by 51% of first-time buyers and 49% of millennials. The number was considerably lower — only 9% — for widowed, divorced or separated homebuyers.
Urban buyers were also more than twice as likely to find love than suburban or rural buyers. Nearly 70% of recent big city homeowners said they fell in love after moving, compared to 33% of rural buyers and 22% of suburban buyers.
“What we found is that love does not just prompt homebuying, but homebuying appears to prompt love as well,” Manny Garcia, senior population scientist at Zillow, said in a press release. “Homeownership can provide financial security, a stable foundation and a place to create lifelong memories. For many buyers, it also appears to be, at least in part, the springboard to putting down roots and finding love.”
The survey also found that buyers with an annual income of $100,000 or more were twice as likely to find love after their purchase, while only 28% of buyers with incomes less than $50,000 reported finding love after moving.
Men were also more likely to report falling in love after buying a home. More than half of male respondents said they fell in love after buying a home, compared to only 28% of female respondents.