Eye On Housing
Of the 17% of American adults considering a future home purchase in the second quarter of 2021, 61% have moved beyond planning and are already actively trying to find one to buy. This share of active buyers has increased for six straight quarters, a trend that began after the final quarter of 2019 when it stood at 43%. In the past year and a half, several factors have contributed to turning more prospective buyers into active ones: low mortgage rates, desire for more space, and desire for a new location in the suburbs/exurbs.
The share of prospective buyers who are actively searching for a home has grown in every region of the US. From the final quarter of 2019 to the second quarter of 2021, the share went from 46% to 66% in the Northeast, 40% to 50% in the Midwest, 43% to 58% in the South, and 40% to 72% in the West.
As the share of prospective buyers actively searching for a home continues to increase, the length of time spent searching continues to grow. In the fourth quarter of 2019, 57% of buyers actively engaged in the purchase process had spent 3+ months looking. By the second quarter of 2021, that share was 66%.
* All national and regional series in the HTR were seasonally adjusted for the first time in the second quarter of 2021. As a result, all data prior to this quarter have changed, as they now reflect the seasonal adjustments. Moving forward, non-seasonally adjusted data will no longer be published.
** TheHousing Trends Report (HTR) is a research product created by the NAHB Economics team with the goal of measuring prospective home buyers’ perceptions about the availability and affordability of homes for-sale in their markets. The HTR is produced quarterly to track changes in buyers’ perceptions over time. All data are derived from national polls of representative samples of American adults conducted for NAHB by Morning Consult. Results are seasonally adjusted. A description of the poll’s methodology and sample characteristics can be found here This is the fifth in a series of six posts highlighting results for the second quarter of 2021.
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