PAR survey of new homebuyers reveals thoughts about the transaction

By F. Todd Polinchock
September 14, 2016
2 min.

PAR’s latest Welcome Home survey shows some interesting changes in a couple of areas.

First, the survey revealed a majority of Pennsylvania homebuyers are starting their home search online. Nearly 60 percent used an online search, with realtor.com® and Zillow.com the most frequently cited. This is an increase of 5 percent, compared to homebuyer responses in the second quarter.

Of those using a web tool to search for a home, 64 percent of them cited realtor.com® or Zillow.com as their primary source. In addition, 70 percent of homebuyers under the age of 50 report going online to search for a home, showing that use of these online sites will continue to increase.

The survey showed there was a slight increase in the number of homebuyers visiting specific real estate office sites. However in Pennsylvania, it appears that realtor.com^® and Zillow.com are their preferred websites for finding a home.

Cash is still the king with older homebuyers and the survey shows an increase in the number of homebuyers who used cash to buy their home. More than one in four report purchasing their new home entirely with cash rather than using financing. That’s compared to one in five in the last quarter.

Homebuyers over the age of 50 have typically been most likely to report cash-only purchases in our previous surveys, but this time, we saw notable bumps in the share of buyers who bought with cash. Thirty percent of those ages 50 to 64 bought their home with cash in the third quarter, compared to 20 percent last quarter, while 45 percent of those ages 65 and older reported buying their homes with cash in the third quarter, compared to 36 percent last quarter.

Homebuyers continue to expect to live in their home for more than 25 years. Forty-eight percent of homebuyers between the ages of 35 and 65 hope to live in their current home for a generation, while 37 percent of homebuyers under the age of 35 and just 31 percent of homebuyers over the age of 65 felt the same way.