It wasn’t long ago that the housing market was looking pretty bad — after the economy took a turn for the worse in 2007 and 2008, everyone involved in the real estate industry, from homeowners to real estate agents, had to work pretty hard to keep the industry running. And thanks to their hard work, the housing market is stronger now than it’s been in a long, long time. In fact, just take a look at the three points below, and you’ll see what we mean:
31 Years Old: The average age of an American consumer buying a new home for the first time in 2013, whereas consumers who had already purchased a house at least once before were around 53 years old, on average. Many economic experts have noticed that one of the biggest real estate trends right now is that new college grads in their 20s — aka, the Millennials — aren’t buying new homes as much as previous generations have done.
88%: The number of home buyers in 2013 who turned to a real estate agent for help when buying a new home. Although you technically “hire” a real estate agent and have to pay fees for their services, the majority of people who have bought and/or sold a house through a real estate agent have stated that they would definitely turn to the same person or real estate firm for help again. The benefits of hiring a real estate agent are nearly endless: not only are they aware of real estate trends on national and local levels, but they can assess the value of a home quickly, help you figure out what type of home you want, and will negotiate with the seller, handling all the financial details and helping you understand the confusing contracts in the process.
12 Years: The average amount of time that people usually expect to spend in a house after purchasing it. Even though the housing market stabilized quite a bit during 2014 and many real estate brokers stated that they expected to see the market continue to stabilize over the next few years, buying a new home is still a big investment and it can be pretty time consuming, too. For people who don’t want to be tied down to one living space for too long, renting a house, townhouse, or apartment is usually a better option. Continue reading here.
