The National Association of REALTORS® 2013 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers presents interesting demographic information about the people who bought and sold properties in 2012-2013.
The report provides data on the age, household characteristics and income of buyers and sellers, among other details. The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) also broke down their data by subregion, offering a glimpse into the various buyer and seller profiles in different parts of the US.
The Demographics of Home Buying and Selling
The NAR report revealed a few trends among buyers and sellers.
More Home Buyers Today Are Married
- 66% of home buyers were married in 2013, 40% of whom have children in the home. This represents the highest proportion of married couples buying since 2001.
- The next largest group of home buyers is single women, at 16% of all home buyers in 2013. Single males make up 9% of buyers, and only 7% are unmarried couples.
Image source: Elegran Real Estate
People Begin Buying in Their Early 30s
- The typical first-time home buyer is 31 years old, whereas the typical repeat buyer is 52 years old.
- The median age of home buyers has dropped from 45 years old in 2011 to 42 in 2013.
Home Buyers Today Have More Income
- The median home buyer’s income has risen 15% in the last three years, from $72,200 in 2010 to $83,300 in 2013.
- In 2013, the median income was $64,400 for first-time buyers and $96,000 for repeat buyers.
The Richest Buyers Are in Washington, Oregon and California
NAR’s data on home buyers by subregion paints a picture of where in the US buyers have higher incomes, and what age they tend to buy.
- The Pacific subregion (WA, OR and CA) contains buyers with the highest median household income, at $96,300. This compares to West North Central (MN, IA, MO, KS, NE, SD and ND), whose buyers’ median household income is $71,300, the lowest in the country.
- The oldest home buyers can be found in the Mountain subregion (MT, WY, CO, NM, AZ, UT, ID and NV); their median age is 48. On the other hand, the West North Central subregion – home to the buyers with the least income – also hosts the youngest buyers, at age 36.
Homes in California are among the most expensive in the country – which could partially explain why home buyers in the Pacific region have the highest incomes. Image source: Huffington Post
Maponics Context Demographics™
You can learn a lot about real estate trends through demographic segmentation data; the NAR’s report is one example.
For consumers, real estate portals use demographic data to give home buyers and investors even more ways to filter their property search. Data attributes such as “total number of families” or “number of people who walk to work” help convey the finer points of life in a particular community.
Context Demographics™ aggregates US Census and ACS data and projects it onto Maponics Neighborhood Boundaries, ZIP Code Boundaries, School Boundaries and others, providing unprecedented insight into local character.
Because of Maponics’ sophisticated neighborhood boundary data, certain Maponics demographics – the median income of Chinatown residents, for example – aren’t found anywhere else.
Contact us to learn more about how demographic segmentation data can be applied to the real estate industry.