SANTA CLARA, Calif.,
July 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/
-- At a time when things seem to be changing more
rapidly than ever before, a realtor.com® HarrisX survey
of active home shoppers released today shows that homebuyers are
largely looking for the same characteristics in a new home, before
and after COVID. However, after months of quarantine and economic
uncertainty, many are shifting the ways they approach the buying
process.
To identify what's changed and what hasn't,
realtor.com® compared the results of its most recent
survey conducted in June to a similar survey of prospective buyers
in March. Both surveys polled 2,000 people looking to purchase a
home within the next 12 months.
"The COVID pandemic has disrupted nearly every aspect of
American life. How we live and work has changed dramatically,
unemployment went from record lows to historic highs in weeks
and the U.S. economy is in a recession following the longest
expansion in history," said realtor.com® Senior
Economist, George Ratiu. "While the
health and economic impact has been significant, the U.S. housing
market has remained surprisingly resilient, and consumers continue
to view home ownership as the foundation of the American Dream.
Home buyers remain steadfast in the main attributes they
seek--three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a garage. However, the
quarantine has made people rethink where and why they want a new
home."
Post-COVID Findings
The global pandemic has sent
shockwaves through the U.S. economy, but housing has shown
resilience and that can be seen in the survey results. According to
the data, over one-third of homebuyers are more optimistic about
buying a home after COVID. Additionally, despite record high
unemployment levels COVID has offered a few silver linings for
homebuyers -- nearly two-thirds believe shelter-in-place orders
have helped them save money. Additionally, as the Federal Reserve
continues to move with caution on historically low interest rates,
and bond investors remain concerned about the recovery outlook,
many home buyers are seeing lower mortgage rates. Among them,
three-quarters say it is impacting their home search, most often
helping them look for larger homes, in nicer neighborhoods. Equal
shares are using lower mortgage rates to stretch their budget to
get into a more expensive home, or pocket the savings by decreasing
their monthly mortgage budget. In addition, home shoppers are
willing to live farther away from their workplaces to find the
right house, with 9 percent of respondents to the summer survey
indicating they would be willing to commute over an hour, compared
with the 3 percent who chose the same response in the spring.
Spring vs. summer -- three bedrooms, two baths, up-to-date
kitchen and garage reign supreme
Price range, number of
bedrooms and bathrooms, as well as most desirable home features
haven't changed in buyers' minds. In fact, both surveys found that
the vast majority of buyers -- 65 percent -- are shopping for homes
priced under $350,000. The national
median priced home in the U.S. was $342,000 in June. Additionally, garages continued
to reign supreme as the most important feature for buyers in both
the early spring and summer surveys. A renovated kitchen and large
backyard space ranked in the top five features people want in both
surveys. Interestingly, despite the stay at home orders, a large
backyard ranked fairly consistent in both surveys, only gaining a 1
percent increase from 20 percent in the spring survey to 21 percent
in the summer survey.
|
Pre-COVID
|
Post-COVID
|
Looking for a home
under $200,000
|
42%
|
38%
|
Plan to buy in the
next 4-6 months
|
30%
|
30%
|
Looking for 3-bedroom
home
|
39%
|
41%
|
Looking for
2-bathrooms
|
49%
|
49%
|
Most important
feature when buying
|
Garage
|
Garage
|
Post-COVID shoppers are willing to pay more, commute longer
and want move-in ready
But the buying process has been
impacted by the pandemic, especially buyer timelines, desired
condition of the property, as well as how far buyers are willing to
go financially. According to the June
2020 survey, 41 percent of buyers said they are looking to
buy sooner because of COVID, 44 percent said it had no impact, and
15 percent said they have slowed their purchase timeline.
Additionally, 84 percent of summer buyers are looking for a
move-in-ready home, up 10 percent from 74 percent in March.
At the same time, the current economic uncertainty is
translating into a lower intention to compete financially among
home buyers compared to this spring. After COVID, 6 percent fewer
home shoppers report planning to put down a larger earnest money
deposit, 6 percent fewer plan to offer above asking price, 6
percent fewer plan to offer all cash, 7 percent fewer will forgo a
financing contingency, and 3 percent fewer home shoppers plan to
put down more than a 20 percent down payment
|
Pre-COVID
|
Post-COVID
|
Looking for move-in
ready home
|
74%
|
84%
|
Put more than 20%
down
|
31%
|
28%
|
Put down larger
earnest money deposit
|
25%
|
19%
|
Offer above asking
price
|
23%
|
17%
|
Offer all
cash
|
23%
|
17%
|
Additionally, while 38 percent of shoppers have increased their
target price range since starting their home search, 25 percent of
shoppers are looking for a lower priced home because they want to
have more savings just in case (47 percent), are worried about
financial security (37 percent), are concerned over general
economic conditions (37 percent) or their income has decreased (26
percent).
For more information about the realtor.com®
home buying surveys, please visit here.
About realtor.com®
Realtor.com®
makes buying, selling and living in homes easier and more rewarding
for everyone. Realtor.com® pioneered the world of
digital real estate 20 years ago, and today through its website and
mobile apps is a trusted source for the information, tools and
professional expertise that help people move confidently through
every step of their home journey. Using proprietary data science
and machine learning technology, realtor.com® pairs
buyers and sellers with local agents in their market, helping take
the guesswork out of buying and selling a home. For professionals,
realtor.com® is a trusted provider of consumer
connections and branding solutions that help them succeed in
today's on-demand world. Realtor.com® is operated by
News Corp [Nasdaq: NWS, NWSA] [ASX: NWS, NWSLV] subsidiary Move,
Inc. under a perpetual license from the National Association of
REALTORS®. For more information, visit
realtor.com®.
About HarrisX
HarrisX is a leading opinion research
company that specializes in online polling, mixed-mode polling, and
data analytics. The company has a thirteen-year history assessing
public opinion and behavior in the telecom, media, and technology
industries through syndicated and custom research services. HarrisX
runs the Mobile Insights and Total Communication Surveys, the
largest syndicated consumer insights trackers in the United States for the TMT space, which
include over 60,000 monthly respondents; the Telephia (beta)
metering application, which captures behavioral data; and HarrisX
Overnight Poll, which delivers results of general population and
voter surveys within 24 hours, looking at Americans' opinions on
society, politics, technology, and the economy. For more
information, visit: www.harrisx.com.
Media Contacts:
Cody Horvat,
cody.horvat@move.com
Lexie Holbert,
lexie.puckett@move.com
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SOURCE realtor.com