Home affordability is driving more than two-thirds (65.2 percent) of potential buyers back into today’s housing market, according to the new national REALTOR.com® Homeownership Survey. Home buyers are taking advantage of price declines and low interest rates in the most affordable market conditions in 28 years, though only one in ten of homeowners are putting off selling their home due to these factors.
Foreclosure bargains would motivate nearly one of five prospective buyers, or 19.6 percent, to purchase a home in their community. This same group also said that foreclosure bargains are the key factor in generating interest in buying in the near future.
A total of 15.5 percent of respondents said they are particularly motivated to buy soon because they think prices aren’t going to drop any lower. Additionally, a separate group of 15.5 percent want to buy now before interest rates rise. The $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit is also motivating 14.6 percent of first-time buyers to buy a home in the future.
Though affordability is driving sales today, most Americans actually aren’t aware of how affordable homes are right now. A total of 76.4 percent of participants said that a median income family can afford only 50 percent or fewer of the homes for sale in their area. The fact is, a family earning the national median income can afford almost 75 percent of the current homes for sale on Realtor.com.
The survey also found that 87 percent of Americans are paying more (44.7 percent) or the same amount of attention (42.3 percent) to home values compared to a year ago.
The Realtor.com survey is based on 1,004 interviews conducted from June 19-21, 2009 by Omnitel, a weekly national telephone omnibus service of GfK Custom Research North America.
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