The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers is an annual survey of home buyers and sellers who recently completed a transaction, and has been published since 1981.
The annual report provides insight into detailed buying and selling behavior. Let’s take a look!
In 2021, as buyers moved to be near friends and family, or felt the need for a larger home, the average distance moved from the last home increased from 15 miles to 50 miles.
During the second half of 2022, housing affordability was an ongoing theme with both the rise in home prices and the recent rise in mortgage interest rates. That year, the share of first-time buyers shrunk to just 26 percent, the smallest share since data collection started.
In 2022, 97% of first-time buyers financed their home purchase with a down payment of six percent, similar to 2021. In comparison, the share of repeat buyers who financed their purchase dropped to 73 percent from 83 percent in 2021 with a typical down payment of 17 percent.
For 47 percent of buyers, the source of the down payment came from their savings. Thirty-eight percent of repeat buyers cited using the proceeds from the sale of a primary residence, while 22 percent of first-time buyers used a gift or loan from friends or family for the down payment.
The age of both first-time buyers and repeat buyers climbed to the highest levels reported. The typical first-time buyer in 2022 was 36 years old, rising from 33 in 2021, while the typical repeat buyer age climbed to 59 years.
Twelve percent of buyers purchased a new home, and 88 percent of buyers purchased a previously-owned home.
For buyers, 49 percent cited quality of the neighborhood as the most important factor determining the location. Convenience to friends and family and overall affordability of homes were both cited at 37 percent.
In 2022, buyers typically searched for their home for 10 weeks, an increase from eight weeks seen in the 2020 and 2021 reports. Ninety-six percent of buyers used online tools in the search process.
The typical home seller was 60 years old, an increase from 56 in 2021.
For all sellers, the most commonly cited reason for selling their home was the desire to move closer to friends and family (21 percent), moving due to retirement (11 percent), or the neighborhood becoming less desirable (11 percent).
Sellers typically lived in their home for 10 years before selling. This is an increase from eight years in the 2021 report, but reverts back to the same tenure seen in 2019 and 2020.
Source: National Association of REALTORS