28 Stats That Sum Up the American Housing Market By Joe Szabo, Scottsdale Real Estate Team
By Joe Szabo, Scottsdale Real Estate Team
Both renters and buyers face challenges in finding a place to call home, and the Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report 2017 is a deep dive into understanding them.
We surveyed over 13,000 people to determine how Americans rent, buy, sell and think about real estate. Below, we break down some of the most surprising results.
Renters
More Americans are renting today than in recent decades — some by choice and some simply due to market conditions.
Thirty-seven percent of American households are renters — about 43.7 million homes — which is an increase of 6.9 million homes since 2005.
While part of this increase is due to the 8 million homes lost to foreclosure during the recession, renters today also prize the maintenance-free and flexible lifestyle renting offers.
- Renters skew younger — the median age of the typical renter is 32 years old.
- Renters represent a more diverse population — 55 percent are white, 19 percent are African-American/black, 17 percent are Hispanic, 7 percent are Asian/Pacific Islander and 3 percent identify as another ethnicity.
- Nearly half of renters are single, including a third who have never married.
- Although the majority of renters are single, 78 percent live with others — most often this is another family member.
- The median rent across the U.S. is $1,010, with the highest rents in the West and the lowest rents in the Midwest.
- Renting can be expensive: 79 percent of renters who moved in the past year had a rent increase.
- More than half of renters (57 percent) said a rent increase influenced their decision to move, and 37 percent of renters who aren’t moving say it’s because they can’t afford to.
Buyers
Buying is tough in all markets. For most Americans, it’s the biggest purchase they’ll ever make and an investment they’ll tap into as part of retirement.
In particular cities, purchasing a home has become a competitive game, complete with bidding wars and offer negotiations. It makes sense that most buyers rely on agents to help them through the process.
- Today’s buyers have a median age of 40, although the majority (71 percent) of first-time buyers are millennials.
- The median household income of the typical buyer is $87,500, and most buyers are married or partnered, relying on two incomes to purchase a home.
- The typical purchased home in the U.S. costs $200,000 and has 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms and 1,800 square feet.
- More than anything, buyers want their home to be in a safe neighborhood (71 percent) and in their price range (67 percent).
- Other than safety, buyers also want to stay cool — 62 percent of buyers require their homes to have air conditioning.
- Buyers take an average of 4.3 months to search for their new home — although millennials take just under four months (3.9 months), and silent generation buyers take 5.6 months.
- The suburbs rule — 49 percent of buyers buy there, followed by 31 percent who buy in urban locations and just 19 percent who purchase in rural regions.
Sellers
Although some hot markets have favorable conditions for sellers, selling is still rarely an easy process.
Sellers have two main goals when they list their homes: sell their home in their preferred time frame and for their desired price. Balancing the two is a delicate dance, and most sellers are also buyers searching for a new home.
- The median age of sellers is 45, although millennials make up nearly one-third of todays’ sellers.
- Sellers have a higher median income than homeowners at $87,500.
- The typical seller has lived in their home for 12 years.
- Most sellers are selling for the first time (61 percent) and looking to buy at the same time (71 percent).
- 76 percent of sellers have to make at least one concession to sell their home — and most often it’s a price reduction.
- 1 in 2 sellers sell their home for less than the original listing price.
Homeowners
Owning a home is a lot of work. It’s also a great investment, especially in many of today’s markets where annual appreciation rates are higher than they’ve been in decades.
- Homeowners are the oldest, with a median age of 57 years.
- 14 percent of homeowners are millennials.
- Homeowners have a median household income of $62,500, and 71 percent live with a spouse or partner.
- 40 percent of homeowners have a pet (with dogs ranking in top at 30 percent).
- Almost half of homeowners (46 percent) live in the first home they purchased, although this percentage decreases with age.
- 86 percent of homeowners have no plan to sell in the next three years.
- Less than a quarter of homeowners say their home is in “like-new” condition, and more than 60 percent say their home could use a little updating.
- On homeowners’ to-do list for the next year: painting the interior (25 percent), improving the bathroom (22 percent) and landscaping (21 percent).
Please note that this Scottsdale Real Estate Blog is for informational purposes and not intended to take the place of a licensed Scottsdale Real Estate Agent. The Szabo Group offers first class real estate services to clients in the Scottsdale Greater Phoenix Metropolitan Area in the buying and selling of Luxury homes in Arizona. Award winning Realtors and Re/MAX top producers and best real estate agent for Luxury Homes in Scottsdale, The Szabo group delivers experience, knowledge, dedication and proven results. Contact Joe Szabo at 480.688.2020, info@ScottsdaleRealEstateTeam.com or visit www.scottsdalerealestateteam.com to find out more about Scottsdale Homes for Sale and Estates for Sale in Scottsdale and to search the Scottsdale MLS for Scottsdale Home Listings.
While a small housing operation can’t alleviate every concern for families in medical and financial distress, simply having a bit of support can provide immense relief — relief that those families need to take their next step.
“Not only do they have their own private rooms,” says Marty Hartman, executive director of Mary’s Place, “but they also have access to our healthcare clinic. They have a Popsicle Place lounge, where if their children aren’t feeling so well or if they have immunocompromised conditions, they can go in there and relax. [We] just want to set them all up for success.”
And that they do, with excellent results.
With their basic needs managed, the family members soon found a large, affordable 3-bedroom house in Spokane and happily relocated. They now enjoy a large yard, as well as a home to call their own.
That’s exactly what the program is all about, according to Hartman. “Let’s get you the housing options that you need and then move you forward.”
“I remember [my mom] specifically saying, ‘You could roll the doors up and drive through the house,’” Moore-Clark says.
And that’s when it all clicked. With the help of Moore-Clark’s father, a former army draftsman, they made a new plan, hired a team of subcontractors and watched their home begin to take shape.
“It was a very organic [building] process,” Moore-Clark says. “As the framers started framing it up, we would come into the room, and I would try to envision what our life [would look] like.”
Moore-Clark doesn’t have to use her imagination anymore. Today the couple, their three daughters, a dog, an old pony and 80 free-range chickens roam about the 10,000-square-foot home. And although they spend most of their time in a small fraction of the space, there’s plenty of room to grow. Three main areas, to be exact.
At approximately 2,250 square feet, the east side of the home is where you can usually find the family. This area includes the bedrooms, the living room/kitchen area and the bathroom.
Speaking of that bathroom: “I wanted it to be like a little greenhouse,” Moore-Clark says. Her vision for the bathroom predates the actual bathroom itself — she bought the tub before they started building.
Even though there’s room for dozens of bedrooms, the girls share one room, complete with custom-designed bunk beds.
And then there’s the breezeway. This is the second section of the home, and it’s around 2,000 square feet. The breezeway is an indoor porch area with roll-up doors and plenty of living space.
“Lots of playing happens in the breezeway,” Moore-Clark says. “[The girls] ride their bikes through it, put on musical events with their friends — ballets, plays, lots of things.”
Finally, there’s the west side, which contains an office space, a home gym, a shop, and a guest bedroom and bathroom.
“When people stay … they really have their own space,” Moore-Clark says. “You don’t even hear each other. It’s good for a little retreat.”
The home is good for a lot of activities that fall outside the ordinary — it’s hosted live music recordings, floral workshops and even a Christmas Eve church service.
So what compelled Clark and Moore-Clark to create a space so vast and so intimate at the same time? They’re not really sure. Yet.
“We feel like, one day, it’s going to be used for something interesting. … [It’s] a gut feeling.” Moore-Clark says. “We don’t know exactly why we built this place the way it is. But we knew it was right.”
