Just 12% of adults are considering a home purchase in the next 12 months, per data from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
While that share of potential homebuyers is flat from the prior quarter, it continues a downward trend from at least the fourth quarter of 2017, when 24% of adults considered buying within a year. Since then, that percentage has subsided from 17% in the first quarter of 2018 to 14% in the second quarter of 2018 to 13% from the third quarter of 2018 to the first quarter of 2019.
For 60% of the buyers who indicated that they were considering a purchase, it will be their first time buying a home, just a hair below last year’s share of 61%. Millennials are the most likely generation to be eyeing a purchase, with 20% of respondents of that cohort saying they were considering it. Twelve percent of Gen X respondents and 11% of Gen Z respondents indicated that they were potentially looking to buy, while just 6% of Boomers reported such plans.
Geographically, there isn’t much variance in whether or not respondents are considering a purchase soon. Those in the South, at 13%, and West, at 12%, are marginally more interested in buying within 12 months than those in the Northeast or Midwest (11%).
First-time buyer share, however, is a different story. The Northeast leads the country in percentage of first-timers among all prospective homebuyers at 64%, followed by the South at 60%. Fifty-nine percent of prospective homebuyers in the West are first-time buyers, while the Midwest has the lowest share at 54%.
