NAR 2010 Homebuyer Survey Results

NAR conducted their annual Homebuyer survey and the results for 2010 were just released. If you haven’t had a chance yet to review, below is an overview of some of the key findings.

- In 2010, first-time homebuyers constituted 50% of the market. There are a number of factors to explain this significant increase, one of which is that first-time buyers don’t have to sell a home before they can buy. Moreover, prices have been dropping while interest rates remain low by historical standards. Especially, government policies such as tax credits have played a major role.

- Only 4% of buyers purchased a home that had been foreclosed or that was in the process of foreclosure. That is actually lower than a couple of years ago. In 2010 a full 39 % of buyers did not even consider buying a home in foreclosure. Of those who did consider making such a purchase, but did not ultimately do so, the primary reason (26%) was that they simply could not find a home that was right for them. Nineteen percent did not purchase a foreclosure home because the process was too difficult or complex. Another 17% did not buy because the house was in poor condition.

- This year 74% of buyers said that they used the internet frequently during the search process, about the same as 76% last year. In 2003 that number was 42%.

- 36% of buyers went to the internet as the first step in the home search process. 19% contacted a real estate agent first, and 7% began by driving through neighborhoods looking for homes for sale.

- Buyers use multiple sources of information in the process of looking for a home. Far and away the most used sources are the internet (89%), real estate agents (88%) and yard signs (57%).

- Multiple Listing Service (MLS) websites were the primary source of information for buyers who used the internet in their search process. 59% of those buyers went to MLS sites. 45% used Realtor®.com, 43% went to real estate company websites, and 42% went to sites hosted by individual agents. Aggregators such as Zillow, Homegain, and Yahoo were visited by 41% of buyers.

- In 2001 only 8% of buyers found their home on the internet. In 2010 37% of buyers learned about their home through the internet.

- In 2001, a yard sign was the third most likely source of information leading to the home that was purchased (15%). This year it is still the third leading source at 11%. Print media may not be dead, but it has shrunk to insignificance in this arena. In 2001, 7% found the home they purchased through a newspaper ad; in 2010 it was 2%. Fewer than 1% found their home through a home book or magazine.