Which State Has the Happiest—and the Least Happy—Homeowners?

Money cannot buy happiness, but having more bedrooms can elevate a buyer's mood: Homeowners who purchased average-priced homes with plenty of space ranked the happiest on a new LawnStarter.com survey of more than 5,000 recent homebuyers. Having pleasant neighbors and a safe place to raise children help keep away buyer’s remorse as well—which may be some of reasons why Iowa’s Midwestern charm edged out the other states to rank first for having the happiest homeowners. See which other states have homeowners smiling, and which ones have buyers who harbor the most regret.

A new LawnStarter.com survey of more than 5,000 recent homebuyers found that Iowans are the happiest with their home purchase in 2019 — but nearly 1 million homebuyers nationally regret their purchase.

The results are part of a large-scale “New Homebuyer Happiness Index” survey by LawnStarter, a national on-demand lawn and landscaping service company. We surveyed 5,672 people who purchased homes in 2019. All respondents answered 118 questions about various aspects of homebuying. Results were obtained from people in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

The core of the survey was six questions related to how happy the homebuyers were with their purchase.

We asked:

If their neighbors were friendly.

If the neighborhood felt safe.

Whether the job market was good.

Whether the new location was a good place to raise children.

If they regret the purchase.

Would they buy the same house, knowing what they know now.

Answers to those six questions were weighted equally and converted to a 100-point scale, with 100 being the happiest.

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