How might it help your brand to have a deeper understanding of today’s new home buyers? Wick Marketing’s recent study provides valuable insights into what is going right for them in the homebuying process – and what is not.
The study included homebuyers between Jan. 2022 and March 2023, and took a closer look at those who purchased a new home between Nov. ’22 to March ’23, despite interest rate hikes and inflation. Understanding their attitudes, as well as the attitudes of prospects, can help to more effectively create an environment where buyers move confidently through the purchasing process to become satisfied customers. And we all know that satisfied customers are better for business on every level.
Key Research Insights
A significant percentage of recent homebuyers felt unsupported and were left wanting for more information, especially around financing. Builders and developers who provide better support and useful resources stand to earn stronger connections with today’s buyers – and are better positioned to sell more homes.
Having current homebuyer and prospect insights gives builders and developers a significant opportunity to deliver more of what their customers say they need – and to gain a competitive edge in their market.
Consumer Segments as Defined by Attitudes
Recent new home buyers were asked for their level of agreement on 47 attitudinal statements. Most often, groups that share similar attitudes would sort into somewhat equal-sized groups. In this study, however, one group was notably smaller at 22 percent. The defining attitudes below show the responses that each group held in common.
Confident and Satisfied – 22%
- I was planning to buy a home before the market changed and wasn’t willing to wait.
- I’m proud of the home I own.
- I’m satisfied with my recent home purchase.
- I felt confident in my decisions during my homebuying process.
- Having a positive relationship with the homebuilder, real estate agent and other professionals made me feel more comfortable buying a home.
- I had plenty of time to make an informed decision.
- I completely trusted the professionals I worked with.
- I carefully considered and selected which professionals I worked with.
- My experience buying a home was overall positive.
Burdened and Disappointed – 38%
- Buying a home felt like a decision that could impact the rest of my life.
- I wanted the home-buying process to be as simple and quick as possible.
Stressed and Regretful – 40%
- The interest rate hikes made my homebuying experience incredibly stressful.
- Rising interest rates changed how I went about buying my home.
- I needed more support from professionals, family and friends during the buying process.
- I worry a lot about my financial situation and ability to pay my mortgage.
- Life circumstances made it impossible for me to delay buying a new home in spite of the market uncertainty.
- I felt financial pressure to buy a home faster than I wanted.
- There’s a lot I wish I had understood about interest rates before I bought my home.
- I would never buy a home during a housing market like that again.
- I regret buying my most recent home.
To access more insights in our presentation, Beyond Buyer Profiles & Demographics: Who is Buying Homes Now and Why, as well as our free interactive Tableau data visualization tool, where you may view the data that’s most meaningful to you, please visit wickmarketing.com/research.
About the Study
Wick Marketing commissioned its research partner, Audience Audit, Inc., to conduct the study to gain a comprehensive understanding, backed by statistically significant data, of recent homebuyers’ attitudes and perceptions when choosing a builder and purchasing a new home. The goal was to better understand people who, despite 10 interest rate hikes, inflation and sometimes inflammatory headlines, still bought new homes. Additionally, the desire was to learn more about what current prospects prioritize in their homebuying experience.
The study took a uniquely quantitative approach to uncover different attitudinal segments within the buyer audience. These segments encompass individuals who hold distinct but common perspectives on the homebuying process, their confidence levels, their degree of trust in builders and real estate agents, as well as their priorities in the homebuying experience.
Methodology
This 15-minute online survey was fielded March 27-April 22, 2023. The majority of U.S. states are represented by the 1,347 respondents. The margin of error is +/- 2.6 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.
If you’d like to explore data-informed actions your brand can take now to better support and connect with today’s homebuyers, we’d love to help! Please visit wickmarketing.com/research, or reach out to Barbara Wray at barbara@wickmarketing.com or (512) 564-4289 to chat.
