Prices and Selection Are Changing Home Buying Plans

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) says the effects of higher home prices and tight inventories appear to be weighing on home buying decisions. Rose Quint writes in NAHB’s Eye on Housing blog that the share of adults who said they planned to buy a home over the next year declined by 1 percentage point in both the third and fourth quarters of last year. This has reduced the share of those with near-term plans from 17 percent in Q2 to 15 percent by the end of the year.

Further, the percentage of those potential buyers who would be purchasing their first homes dropped from 65 percent in quarter three to 63 percent. It was the first decline since mid-2020.

The decline occurred in three of the four regions of the county. The Midwest was unchanged. In each region over half of those planning to purchase would be first time buyers. That share rose from 65 to 70 percent in the Northeast but dropped 9 points in the Midwest. It was also down slightly in the West but unchanged in the South. Across generations the most significant change was in the buying plans of Gen X’ers. The share planning a purchase dropped from 18 to 12 percent during the year.

Quint’s data comes from NAHB’s quarterly Housing Trends Report. It is based on a national survey measuring adults’ perceptions about the availability and affordability of homes for-sale in their markets.