According to new research from the National Association of Home Builders, more than 55 percent of all recent homebuyers moved for a "better home."
First-time homebuyers had the larger share of recent buyers who moved for a better home, and 49 percent of trade-up buyers moved for that reason. The second biggest reason buyers moved in the study was "for a better neighborhood," with 46 percent of all buyers citing this reason, followed by "to form a household," with a 39 percent share of all buyers. However, this was the second-most cited reason for first-time buyers to move, with a 61 percent share.
For its February Special Study, NAHB used data from the 2017 American Housing Survey (AHS) to create a profile of recent home buyers (those who bought a home in the two years preceding the 2017 AHS). The AHS is a nationally representative survey of residential structures in the US and of the households that occupy them (sponsored by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and conducted by the Census Bureau biennially in odd-numbered years).