Consumers admit to 'home crush' in new survey

Men and women are notably different when it comes to developing a “crush” on a home, according to the results of realtor.com’s Home Crush Survey.

In this survey, realtor.com® defines a home crush as a “home a consumer likes and is drawn back to looking at more than once online or in person.” The survey ran on realtor.com® from Jan. 9-20 and found that more than 1,000 respondents reported having a home crush.

Sixty-nine percent of the people who responded said that they have had a house crush while 31 percent revealed that they have not had a crush on a house.

“We conducted the survey to see how searching for ‘the one’ in real estate correlates to searching for ‘the one’ in love and we found that they are very similar,” said Barbara O’Connor, chief marketing officer at realtor.com®, in a statement. “Buyers have to evaluate crushes based on turn-ons and offs and whether the home is in their league, so they often find themselves spending a good amount of time checking out their crush online.”

Leslie Piper, consumer housing specialist at realtor.com®, said women tend to find a new home crush “on a monthly basis and swoon for updated appliances and fixtures” while men are more likely to “move from one crush to another on a weekly basis and consider a garage as an important feature.”

Though, men and women tend to fall for the same things when it comes to a house. Of those surveyed, 54 percent of women and 46 percent of men said they tended to “fall in love” with outdoor living spaces.

“Whether it’s love or real estate, having a short list of deal breakers is critical for finding ‘the one’ to help buyers weed through the crushes to find the home of their dreams,” said Piper.

For more information or additional survey highlights, visit realtor.com®.