Zillow: “High interest rates and home values mark continued affordability challenges for buyers. While these trends reshape the homebuying process and buyers’ plans and preferences, many buyers’ behaviors, intentions, and preferences have remained relatively stable over the years. Amid the flurry of challenges, much of the for-sale market remains following the pandemic-catalyzed new ‘normal.’ The 2023 Consumer Housing Trends Report (CHTR) provides a snapshot of what housing consumers are thinking and doing in early-to-mid 2023. In this report, we take a deeper look at buyers (household decision makers that own their primary residence and moved to a home they purchased in the past year); In other reports, we examine renters, sellers, and new construction buyers more closely. Information about who buyers are in 2023 can equip consumers with the tools they need to make informed decisions in this transforming housing market landscape. Who are buyers?The median US buyer is 40 years old, partnered or married, has at least some college education, and is most likely to buy a home in the South. Demographic change tends to play out over a long time: Most of these characteristics have not changed substantially, if at all, over the last few years. What do their homes look like? Most buyers purchased a single-family detached house (77%). Townhouses and rowhouses make up about one in every fourteen purchased homes (7%). Another 7% reported buying a condo and 6% purchased a manufactured or mobile home. About 3% said they bought a duplex or triplex, and about 1% bought a boat, RV, van, or another type of home. Buying a home stayed challenging. We saw many of the same buyer dynamics and trends from last year continue into this year. Like the past two years the typical buyer reported submitting two offers, up from one offer over the preceding three (2018 – 2020). At the same time, the number of first-time buyers continued to trend upward. After falling to 37% of buyers surveyed in 2021, the share of first-time buyers continues to grow – reaching 50% in 2023 – up from 45% last year. In previous years, a competitive, low-inventory market likely contributed to the historic falling share of first-time buyers; however, recent increases in the cost of acquiring a mortgage, coupled with economic uncertainty, may explain would-be repeat buyers staying put. These tenured homeowners are likely to have favorable mortgage rates that they would lose if they moved, while first-time buyers are less likely to consider such a trade-off. What technology do they want for home shopping? Simply put: most buyers want digital tools. When asked if they agreed with a series of statements about their desire for 3D and Virtual home tour technology, buyers tended to at least somewhat agree that such tools would be helpful. Majorities of buyers somewhat or completely agreed that 3D tours would give them a better feel for the space than static photos (72%) and that unlocking properties on their phone and touring them in-person on their own time would be easier (68%). Most agreed at least somewhat that they wished that more listings had 3D tours (67%) and preferred to schedule in-person tours online (66%).”