Redfin's Real-Time Home-Buyer Survey Shows Buyers Still Stymied by Lack of Choice

SEATTLE, Aug. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Redfin, the technology-powered real estate broker (www.redfin.com), today released its latest quarterly home buyer survey. Data was collected less than two weeks ago, capturing the sentiment of people who toured homes with a Redfin agent and expressed intent to buy a home in the next 12 months. Eight hundred and twenty-nine people across 19 metropolitan markets in the U.S. responded. The Redfin Real-Time Home Buyer Survey complements the company's seller survey, issued last week. The home-buyer findings include:

• Forty six percent believe now is a good time to buy, down two quarters in a row; and 32% believe now is a good time to sell, up two quarters in a row;
• 61% believe prices will increase, up two quarters in a row;
• 62% "very interested" in conventional sales, up from 57% in the second quarter and 48% in the first quarter;
• 31% would step back from competing against other buyers for a home, compared to 28% in the second quarter;
• 27% of respondents cited general economic weakness as a concern about buying this year, up from 24% in the second quarter and 20% in the first quarter.

"Even as prices have begun to rise, the overwhelming issue for most of today's buyers is the selection of homes for sale, not what they cost," said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. "The value-driven investors scooping up foreclosures for pennies on the dollar have largely been replaced by first-timers seeking to buy a pretty house now when mortgage rates are below 4%. With so few houses for sale, many will come up empty. The only home-owners willing to sell now mostly are the ones who have to, for a job in a new city or for a new baby. Low prices and low home-equity have resulted in a largely illiquid market for the past two years, and so -- no matter how low mortgage rates get -- sale volume will remain log-jammed until higher prices draw more move-up sellers into the market."

Click here to view full report, including charts and graphs. Additional data segmented by market is also available by contacting [email protected].

About the Redfin Real-Time Home Buyer Survey
From August 16 to August 22, 2012, Redfin surveyed 982 people who had toured a home with a Redfin agent since May 23, excluding anyone who did not indicate an intention to buy a home in the next twelve months, as well as anyone who responded to our first or second quarter buyer survey, or our third quarter seller survey. Eight hundred and twenty-nine people responded across 19 metropolitan markets in the U.S.: Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Orange County, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Riverside / San Bernardino, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington DC.

About Redfin
Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a technology-powered real estate broker that represents people buying and selling homes. Founded and run by technologists, Redfin has a team of experienced, full-service real estate agents who are advocates, not sales-people, earning customer-satisfaction bonuses, not commissions. Redfin's online tools feature all the broker-listed homes for sale, as well as for-sale-by-owner properties that don't pay brokers a commission. The company serves 19 U.S. markets, and has closed more than $5 billion in home sales. Follow us on blog.redfin.com or our Twitter feed @redfin.

SOURCE Redfin