Fewer Americans Plan to Buy a Home

A new quarterly report tracking homebuyer preferences and perceptions finds that only 13 percent of American adults intend to buy a home over the next 12 months.

The Housing Trends Report (HTR) for the third quarter of 2018 also shows that 58 percent of the potential home shoppers will be buying for the first time. By generation, Millennials have the highest share of homebuyer hopefuls for the next year, 19 percent, whereas 13 percent of Generation Xers intend to buy, and seven percent of Baby Boomers plan on purchasing a home, reports The National Association of Home Builders. Looking at housing type, 44 percent of shoppers want an existing home, 18 percent are shopping for a newly constructed home, and 38 percent are looking for either type of home.

The Housing Trends Report (HTR) is a research product created ... with the goal of measuring prospective homebuyers’ perceptions about the availability and affordability of homes for-sale in their markets. The HTR is produced quarterly to track changes in buyers’ perceptions over time. All data are derived from national polls of representative samples of American adults conducted for NAHB by Morning Consult. Results are not seasonally adjusted due to the short time horizon of the series, and therefore caution is advised when interpreting trends or comparing time periods.

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