Kari McCoy's Real Estate Articles
A NEW LOOK AT HOME BUYERS AND SELLERS
Each year, the National Association of Realtors surveys America’s homebuyers and sellers as a means of tracking national real estate market trends. NAR president Thomas Stevens summarized the latest findings: “The real estate industry today bears little resemblance to the way we did business 10 years ago.” What changes are in evidence?
The prediction that the Internet would undercut the business of real estate agents has proven untrue. Although the Internet was used as a resource by 81 percent of homebuyers, 90 percent of buyers used a real estate agent to conduct the transaction. The average buyer visited 9 properties over an 8-week period of house hunting, and bought a home 12 miles from his or her previous residence. The average seller lived in the home for six years, listed it for four weeks and moved 15 miles away.
Sellers who used an agent to sell their home earned an average 16 percent more from the sale than owners who sell their own homes, with a median sale price of $230,000 as compared to $198,200 for FSBO sales. FSBO sales decreased from a record 20 percent in 1981 to 13 percent today.
Who’s buying homes? Married couples bought 61 percent of all homes, followed by single women at 21 percent, single men at 9 percent and unmarried couples at 7 percent. First-time buyers accounted for about 40 percent of home purchase transactions, with an average age of 32 and a household income of $57,000. The typical repeat buyer was 46 years old and earned $83,000 per year.
Buyers prefer good quality neighborhoods that are close to jobs, excellent school districts, family and friends. They choose to work with a real estate agent because of his or her professional reputation, responsiveness and knowledge of the local market, the neighborhood and the transaction process.
Kari McCoy is a resident of El Dorado Hills, and owns the Kari McCoy Group, residential real estate of Coldwell Banker. Call her at 933-kari, email her at sold@KariMcCoygroup.com or visit her website at www.TheRealKariMcCoy.com
Copyright© 2006 Kari McCoy