The 2013 REALTOR® Nationwide Open House, the largest-ever international open house campaign, will be held on April 20 and 21. Below is some open house information from our annual profile of home buyers and sellers:
- Repeat buyers are more likely to find their home from an open house than first-time buyers and repeat buyers use open houses more frequently.
- Mid-income buyers, those with income between $55,000 and $75,000, are most likely to find their home through an open house compared to other incomes. However, as income increases the use of open houses actually increases as well. So higher income buyers are walking into open houses, but not finding their home through them.
- Older buyers, 65 years and older, are more likely to find their home through an open house than other age groups. As age increases the likelihood of using open houses as a search tool increases—45% of buyers aged 45 to 64 used open houses, compared to only 28% of buyers aged 18 to 24.
- Buyers in the South are most likely to find a home through an open house compared to other regions.
- Buyers of new homes use open houses much more frequently than buyers of previously-owned homes.
- Married couples and unmarried couples are more likely to walk through open houses than single buyers.
- Buyers whose primary language in the home is not English are more likely to use open houses—44% of buyers whose primary language is English use open houses, compared to 59% who use a language other than English in the home. Similarly, buyers who were not born in the U.S. are more likely to use open houses as a search tool—43% of those who were born in the U.S. use open houses compared to 57% of those who were not born in the U.S.
Yesterday, NAR Research held a Twitter chat on home feature preferences for recent buyers. The information for this chat was taken from our recent 2013 Home Features Survey and echoes many of the experiences real estate professionals are having in their own markets. There were too many responses to include them all, but the recap of the major highlights is below. Thank you to all who participated!
Click chart to view larger version.
- Fifty-three percent of buyers undertook a home improvement project within three months of their home purchase.
- Buyers who purchased older, previously-owned homes were the most likely to undertake a home improvement project. Seventy-three percent of those who purchased a home that was built in 1920 or earlier did make a home improvement soon after buying the home, compared to only 33 percent of those who purchased a home built between 2010 and 2012.
- Remodeling the kitchen was the most common home improvement project among recent buyers—47 percent of buyers who did undertake a home improvement project remodeled the kitchen. Bathrooms were a close second at 44 percent.
- For more information, check out the 2013 Home Features Survey.
• Home buyers were recently asked about the importance of green features to their home purchase. Not surprisingly, features that directly affected home buyers’ monthly energy costs were most important to buyers. Buyers found heating and cooling costs the most important, with 39% percent of home buyers reporting this was very important, followed by energy efficient appliances and lighting, each with 24% of buyers saying it was very important.
• Landscaping for energy conservation and environmentally friendly community features were somewhat less important to home buyers—however, half of buyers did find theses at least somewhat important.
• Buyers in the Northeast and the South placed higher importance on heating and cooling costs.
• Buyers who purchased homes that were built in more recent years placed more importance on all environmental features in comparison to buyers who purchased older homes.
• Hopefully buyers will have a little luck of the Irish this weekend finding the perfect home for them!
• For more information on this data, check out the Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, here.
Residential Purchases by Foreign Buyers by State
NAR’s Profile of International Home Buying Activity is available on an annual basis, providing information on the 2 to 3 percent of the existing home sales made annually to foreigners. Data from the 2010, 2011, and 2012 reports indicate that Canadians constitute the biggest segment of the market, followed by Europeans, Asians, Central/South Americans, Chinese, and Mexicans.
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