5 Surprising Stats about Buyers in NAR’s Latest Study
The respondents purchased a home between July 2016 and June 2017 and provided information about their experiences during that 12-month period.
CHICAGO – March 19, 2018 – Millennial buyers are more diverse and mobile than their predecessors, and expect real estate professionals to be totally tech-savvy, right?
According to certain data points from the National Association of Realtors®' (NAR) 2018 Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends Report, that may not be universally true.
NAR released the report is based on a survey mailed out to a random, geographically weighted, sample of 145,800 recent homebuyers last year. The respondents purchased a home between July 2016 and June 2017 and provided information about their experiences during that 12-month period.
The study confirms trends that have been developing over the past few years, such as low inventory, rising prices and the long-awaited entrance of millennials into the housing market.
"Realtors throughout the country have noticed both the notable upturn in buyer interest from young adults over the past year and the mounting frustration once they begin actively searching for a home to buy," says NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. "Prices keep rising for the limited number of listings on the market they can afford, which is creating stark competition, speedy price growth, and the need to save more in order to buy."
However, the report also turned up a few unexpected data points. Here are five tidbits from the report that might surprise a few real estate pros.
- Millennials' first steps aren't what you'd imagine. The stereotype is that younger buyers are more likely than older counterparts to head straight to the internet to initiate the home buying process – but that isn't necessarily borne out in the data. While 40 percent of buyers aged 37 years and younger listed their first step in process as "looked online for properties for sale," that same metric was 46 percent for ages 38 to 52 and 48 percent for ages 53 to 71. Fifteen percent of millennial buyers said their first move was to call a real estate agent.
- Tech expectations may be flipping. While agents and brokers might be planning on beefing up their tech offerings or creating their own brokerage app to appeal to millennials, that infrastructure might be more important to older buyers. Of all the age groups surveyed, virtual tours were most important to buyers between the age of 53 and 71 – only 43 percent of millennials ranked virtual tours as "very useful" in their home search, making them the least interested of all generations in the study. And older buyers increasingly rely on mobile: More buyers age 63 to 71 found their agent through a mobile app than any other group. Finally, only 42 percent of millennials ranked technology as a very important skill for an agent to possess, lower than all other age groups.
- A holding trend? Following years of move-up buyers mostly staying put, it seems those who bought homes between July 2016 and June 2017 are planning to stay even longer. Their expected tenure in homes has increased three full years from last year's results, to a median of 15 years, though it varies with age: For buyers 37 years and younger, the expected length of time in the home they've just bought is only 10 years, compared to 20 years for buyers aged 53 to 62.
- Diversity permeates older groups too. The 38 to 52 age group turned out to be the most racially diverse group of home buyers in 2017, with the most respondents of any group choosing ethnicities other than white/Caucasian. Also, the study found only 4 percent of buyers 37 and younger identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, while that number was 5 percent for buyers aged 38 to 62.
- Millennials less mobile? The notion that young people are more willing to take a chance and move to a brand-new area doesn't seem to hold up in the data. Buyers age 63 to 71 moved the farthest, typically choosing a new home at a median distance of 30 miles from their previous residence. For buyers age 37 and younger, the median was 10 miles.
Source: Meg White, Realtor® Magazine
© 2018 Florida Realtors®. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
Toby Tobin: REALTOR®, SRES®
I am a REALTOR® licensed by the State of Florida and Seniors Real Estate Specialist, SRES®, with Grand Living Realty, where 'The GoToby Team' helps fellow aged 50+ buyers and sellers achieve improved outcomes in real estate transactions by integrating real estate decisions with other age-related decisions/plans through my broad network of respected service providers; financial, wills, trusts, probate, insurance, healthcare, home services, recreation, lifestyle, estate planning, and adult living facilities.
Take advantage of my "Been there. Done that." experience, typically at no additional cost to you. Call me at (386) 931-7124 or email me at Toby@GoToby.com.
Prior to Hi-Tech and Internet
A great example of how we Baby Boomers were exposed to Real Estate Trends. Prior to the Internet the Snail Mail advertising Promos’ were used. In this instance the Levitt & I.T.T. advertising was this below for Palm Coast. A great compare and contrast for the interests of that time circa 1969/1970 and now:
Orlando Sentinel
‘Tis a Privilege to Live in Central Florida
Preservers Applaud Palm Coast
By Peggy Poor
Sentinel Staff
Dramatically changing the damaged image of usually damned developers, ITT Levitt Corp., now building Palm Coast, the country’s largest housing project in Flagler County, is winning kudos instead of kicks from conservationists.
More than that, with long-range environmental planning and careful study by staff
ecologists, the mammoth venture may not only set an example for future would be despoilers but come up with some urgently sought answers to pollution problems.
——————>For Example, ITT Levitt scientists are investigating why St. Johns and Flagler County shellfish harvests had to be prohibited because of contaminated waters. The hope s to reverse conditions that required the ban, if possible.
Preliminary findings indicate sewage dumped principal culprit, according to Dr. Stanley Dea, the firm’s chief ecologist.
NEW CONCEPT
Therefore, in order not to aggravate the situation, ITT Levitt is making a detailed engineering analysis of sewage disposal possibilities to come up with designs new for Florida, and cheaper, Dr. Dea said.
Because Florida’s flat terrain and high ground water level have made gravity systems costly, developers have tended to use septic tanks. But septic systems have become a serious factor in the pollution picture.
America’s biggest conglomerate, therefore, is exploring feasibility of pressure and vacuum systems which may be tried for the first time in the Florida venture.<-------------------------------- Meanwhile, in the first section now under construction, 20,000 acres of the total of 100,000, sewage will get secondary treatment, prior to storage in a polishing lagoon, providing tertiary treatment. Effluent thus purified but still nutrient rich will be used to irrigate an 18 Hole golf course. Sewage Studies This recycling, by an adaptation of nature's own system, is a relatively new concept in sewage disposal developed at Pennsylvania State University and now in use in several California communities and in one near Tallahassee. Much of the pollution and "murder of streams, and lakes, such as Apopka, is the result of eutrophication or over-enrichment by nutrients, which are not removed by treatment plants. As most plants discharge into some body of water, pollution results. If , however, the treated effluent is sprayed on vegetation, as was demonstrated at Penn State and is planned for Palm Coast, it irrigates and fertilizes crops and even raises the ground water table. The vegetation absorbs the nutrients that would eventually destroy streams, lakes, and estuaries. Using Willows Palm Coast ecologists plan to plant Florida vegetation and particularly high absorption qualities, such as willows. Engineers have devised a mechanical apparatus which can fit in a residential size and style building, so the neighborhood view will not be spoiled by an unsightly treatment plant. A chemical has been developed that eradicates the odor, according to Dick Beidl, Palm Coast public affairs officer. The University of Florida's famed coastal engineering department, whose $1 million facilities are now considered unexcelled in the United States, is advising how best to lay out the system of canals for waterfront property so that tidal action will keep them flushed clean, Beidl said. A brief flurry of local fears that the big dredge churning inland from the Intracoastal Waterway channel to scoop out a yacht basin would increase turbidity in the estuaries has been set at rest. Dike Employed Although the dredge is operating in a man made cut not subject to provisions of the Randall Act, ITT Levitt will still 'plug' the opening into the Intracoastal with a dike until its earth stirring digging is completed and settled. "It's the cleanest operation I've seen. No problems", said Larry Shanks, of the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission at Vero Beach, who inspected the site last week. The Operation is pumping the material removed by a 1 1/4 mile pipe line that crosses the waterway and runs under highway A1A. With a 1100 horsepower booster pump the excavated sand is being hoisted up and down over this uneven course to fill a depression just behind the sand dunes which rim the ocean shore. The hole will be filled to a height of about 20 feet above sea-level about even with the dunes; and this will be the site of a motel, probably to be operated by Sheraton, another ITT subsidiary. Dunes Retained Shands had nothing but praise also for this beachfront plan which contemplates leaving the natural dunes as a stabilizer against erosion. Palm Coast experts are also studying the whys and wherefores of erosion and exploring preventative treatment, according to Dea. Palm Coast has also handed its brain trust the choking problem of weed eradication, he said. At the display site, where six model homes and four story office building with viewing tower are under construction, bulldozers wove an intricate path around trees marked for salvation instead of knocking everything down. This more costly method has won approval of forestry officials, and Palm Coast expects it to pay off in long-run appeal of attractive landscaping to prospective purchasers. Space Advantage In the master land use plan, thousands of acres will be preserved in the natural state, Dea said. Additionally, there will be parks and artificial ribbon lakes, Studies are being made to ascertain optimum factors for maintaining maximum sport fish populations in these. Palm Coast's planning advantage, Beidl said, lies in having control of the entire 100,000 acres. To get this vast land area in focus, it can be compared with the area of all five boroughs of Greater New York City, for example, which cover only about half that territory, or with the city of Detroit which spreads over about 88,000 acres. Projection is for an ultimate population here of only about 750,000 as compared with New York's 11.5 million and Detroit's four million. An area comparison closer to home is with the Disney's 27,000 acres. Strict Zoning The assure adherence to this careful planning. Dr. Dea said is a model zoning and building code is being formulates, which will not merely meet, but 'exceed' in stringency all federal state, and local regulations, including those necessary to control air, water, solid waste, radiation, noise, and vibration pollution. This will cover not just major regulations affecting industries which might be attracted to the area, but also folksy questions such as when and even whether residences may have trash incinerators in their back yards. Even one possible future doubt raised apparently will be resolved in favor of conservation, according to Harold 'Burrows, and engineer on the project. Line Questioned Question arose at a recent country commissioners meeting about a bulkhead line for Longs Creek, which branching off the Matanzas River, meanders through the tract a few miles north of the first 'Five Year Plan' development now under construction. some 3,000 to 9,000 on the creek, are submerged public lands under control of the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund. Burrows conceded that prior to recent legislative action, this would have been 'prime development property'.But under present law 'we will sit down with the Department of Natural Resources and do what they tell us we can." AD 2531 Palm Coast ITT LEVITT DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION There really should be Official State of Florida Historic MARKERS for this including , with what is going on in Austin, Texas for our Community Protectors , and also James Gardner, Third I.T.T. Community Development Corporation President, etc. James Gardner Sr. was with I.T.T. Community Development Corporation from 1978 until late 1999 / early 2000's and at the Helm for the Community Development for Palm Coast. We hope this advertising promotion gives the newer Palm Coasters a '...sense of place...' and a ' ...sense of identity...' for the Palm Coast Project. Thank You.