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When it comes to shopping for a home, Southerners tend to buy newer ones, specifically properties less than five years old and on a wooded lot, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors.
While more than three-fourths – or 78 percent – of all buyers purchased a home with a garage, that type of space was more popular among new-home buyers, Midwesterners and suburbanites, according to the association’s 2013 Profile of Buyers’ Home Feature Preferences survey. The house that was most likely to have a “sold” sign out front recently was around 1,860 square feet and built in 1996. First-time buyers and single women tended to buy older homes.
The typical buyer purchased a home with three bedrooms and two full bathrooms. Slightly over half of the homes purchased were on a single level.
Among buyers 55 and older, 42 percent considered a single-level home very important, compared to 11 percent of buyers under 35. Single women also placed higher importance on single-level homes. Single men wanted finished basements. Single men and married couples wanted new kitchen appliances.
Among all 33 home features in the survey, central air conditioning was important to most buyers. Also desirable was having a home that was cable-, satellite TV- and/or Internet-ready, as well as an en-suite master bathroom. When it came to buying a home, 94 percent chose a house with these features.
