National Association of Realtors' most useful research projects include their yearly survey of homebuyers and sellers. It's important as it helps sellers and their agents identify effective strategies and what sources buyers are using when looking for a home to buy, Realty Times reports.
In the most recent survey released this November, respondents were composed of 94,971 consumers (bought a home between July 2014 and June 2015) who were chosen in random and were made to respond to a 128-question survey delivered through mail. The survey had a 6.7 percent response rate after accounting for undeliverable surveys.
Only 32 percent of the total home buying market was composed of first-time home buyers in 2015, which reflects a steady drop since 2010, and is the lowest recorded figure in the past ten years. Despite the record low interest rates, the first-time buyer market is still considered weak. A tightened lending standard is considered one of the major factors, along with millenials, being a great part of the home buying spectrum, burdened by student loan, and mixed with an unstable economy for this cohort.
Home sellers and agents can make most use of the home search process section. There has not been much of a difference in the survey results for the recent years but trends continue. Internet use remains a trend in the home searching process, only varying in the percentage of buyers who use the method rising in number year by year.
What buyers choose as their first step in the home buying process was also identified with 42% used the internet, 14% got in touch with a real estate agent first, and 7% started with driving through neighborhoods to look for homes for sale.
There are several methods and sources that buyers use when looking for a home. Topping the list are real estate websites at 89% and real estate agents at 87%. Replacing the place of yard signs in the third spot is mobile or tablet application use at 57%. However, 51% of home buyers still use yard signs as a source of information. Use of newspaper ads is at 20%, and only 3% said they gained information from TV ads.
Finally and the most important data is the source of the actual home that home buyers ended up buying. For this year, the internet is ranked highest at 44% with agents coming second at 33%. But this doesn't mean that buyers closed the deal in their homes through the internet, but rather found the property online then contacted their agent.
It's fascinating how the trend changed for the past decade. In 2001, 48% of buyers learned about the information on their home through their agent, while only 8% found their home through the internet. What remains unchanged or close to the results from 2001 is yard sign, which is stays in the third spot, but is now lower than double digits.
