The latest 2010 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers was released during NAR”s Annual Convention earlier this month. Here are a few interesting highlights:
• Over the last 10 years, first-time purchasers have accounted for 40-41 percent – on average – of all home buyers during the course of a year. The 2010 survey results show that 50 percent of all purchasers between July of 2009 and June of 2010 were first-time buyers. This is the largest share of first-time buyers in more than 19 years.
• The Internet is playing an ever increasing role in the home search process. Thirty-six percent of buyers looked online for properties for sale as their first step in their search for a home to purchase. An additional 11 percent began by finding information online about the home buying process. Nine in ten buyers used the Internet in some way during their search process.
• Home buyers still rely heavily on the expertise of real estate agents to navigate the housing market and help guide them through the home sales transaction. Eighty-three percent of buyers purchased a home through a real estate agent, up from 77 percent in 2009.
• Typical sellers had been in their previous home for eight years, up from seven years in the 2009 study, first-time buyers plan to stay for 10 years and repeat buyers plan to hold their property for 15 years.
