The Best Way We Know to Sell Your Home Quickly
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Understanding the soul of a home is important. But to a real estate agent’s mind, the foundation of all negotiations is market data.
Looking at statistics and demographics isn’t sexy. It isn’t heartfelt work. But understanding what kinds of buyers are out there is crucial to helping you sell your home quickly. At EXP, we look at regional and national data from a variety of sources to build a profile of potential buyers.
The result: We sell your home fast.
There is, of course, as much nuance to home buyer characteristics as there are home buyers in our community. However, understanding how your potential buyers fit in each of these four categories will help guide your direction and expectations of the process:
Home Buyer Characteristics
Home Purchase Characteristics
The Home Search Process
Home Buying and Real Estate Professionals
For this post, data was gleaned from the National Association of REALTORSⓇ “Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends Report 2021”.
Home Buyer Characteristics
Of all U.S. home buyers last year, 31% were first-time buyers. This is a relatively stable percentage, the same as the year before, although lower than the historical average.
At 24%, NAR reports buyers 41–50 made up the largest generational group of buyers, followed by buyers 31–40 at 23 percent.
As can be expected from these age demographics, most buyers are shopping as a married couple (62%). In addition, NAR says 33% of all buyers had children under the age of 18 living at home. An additional 12% of home buyers purchased a multi-generational home to take care of aging parents, because children over the age of 18 were moving back, or for cost savings.
The most common reasons for recently purchasing a home differed between the generations. For buyers under the age of 66, the main reason for purchasing was the desire to own a home of their own. Among the 66 and older age groups, the top reason to purchase was the desire to be closer to friends and family, followed by the desire for a smaller home.
Home Purchase Characteristics
Traditionally, the most common type of home purchase has been the detached single-family home. That’s still strongly the case, as it made up 81% of all homes bought. However, buyers 22–30 purchased townhomes at higher shares than other age groups.
Top considerations for their neighborhood choice include quality of the neighborhood (62%), convenience to job (45%), overall affordability (43%), and convenience to friends and family (41%).
NAR reports that home buyers only moved a median of 15 miles to their new home. The median distance moved was highest among buyers 66–95 at 35 miles, while the lowest was among those 22–55 at 10 miles.
The typical home purchased in 2020 was 1,900 square feet, had three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and was built in 1993. This is a little larger than the 1,725 sf home size reported by Zillow as the average among all homeowners. We suspect that people buying during the pandemic sought larger spaces where they could spread out.
The median home price across the U.S. in 2017 was $272,500.
The Home Search Process
The averag