|
|
Press Releases
ONE OUT OF FOUR RENTERS NEVER PLAN TO OWN A HOME; 68% WON’T BUY FOR TWO YEARS, ACCORDING TO A NEW SURVEY FROM TRULIAThe Era of the McMansion is over; only nine percent of Americans want a supersized home
SAN FRANCISCO, August 18, 2010 – Trulia.com, smart real estate search to help you make better decisions, today released the results of its recent American Dream survey[1] on attitudes toward home ownership. Government and industry experts agree: consumer interest in buying homes is an essential element of a healthy real estate market. However, 27 percent of renters indicated that they do not plan to buy a home - ever. Of those renters who do plan to purchase someday, 68 percent said it would be more than two years before they do. This reluctance to buy could potentially drag out the real estate market’s recovery timeline further than many have predicted. “Large numbers of people delaying their plans to buy a home, or not planning to buy at all, could have an enormous domino delaying effect on economic recovery in the U.S.,” said Pete Flint, CEO of Trulia. “Renters converting into buyers are crucial to turning around the housing slump, but the current economic crisis is causing people to become very hesitant to get off the fence and buy a home. The government needs to focus more on job creation and job security, as well as stemming the foreclosure hemorrhage. Once that happens, the American public will once again have enough confidence in the real estate market and the economy, at large, to resume purchasing homes.” According to the study, many Americans do still maintain a core belief in the inherent value of owning a home. 72 percent of American adults still believe home ownership is part of their personal American dream. While this is a decline from 77 percent of adults six months ago[2], the result shows that the American Dream of home ownership is still alive. This was not the only way in which American attitudes toward homeownership have changed; nearly one in five Americans (19 percent) stated that their attitude toward homeownership has grown more negative over the last six months. However, more Americans – 23 percent – said that their attitude toward owning a home has grown more positive in the same time frame. Tipping Factors: From Renter to Buyer in One Year Seventy-nine percent of the renters who do plan to buy homes at some point said something could inspire them to buy a home within the next 12 months. The changes in circumstance most frequently cited as the “tipping factors” that would make renters decide to buy within the next year were: being able to save enough money for a down payment, getting a new job, getting a promotion/raise, and interest rates staying low or getting even lower.
The McMansion Era is Over Americans are veering away from the “McMansions” that had grown popular before the recession. Those American adults for whom home ownership is part of the American Dream displayed a preference for smaller homes, with only 9 percent saying their ideal home size is more than 3,200 square feet– the same number of who said they’d like their home to be between 800 and 1,400 square feet. Fifty-five percent of Americans would prefer a home between 1,401 and 2,600 square feet.
To listen to a replay of Pete Flint and Simply Hired’s CEO Gautam Godhwani discussing the results of the survey and other insights into the real estate market, click here. For infographics illustrating the results of this survey in a visual format, please visit: http://info.trulia.com/index.php?s=43&item=96. For more information about Trulia or to experience the power of a Trulia search, please visit http://www.trulia.com/. About Trulia, Inc. About Harris Interactive Media Contacts |
