The coronavirus pandemic — coupled with historically low mortgage rates — is motivating a majority of homebuyers to purchase a home in the coming year, according to results from LendingTree’s latest survey.
To get a better handle on how the outbreak is impacting homebuyer behavior, LendingTree commissioned a survey of more than 1,000 prospective buyers about their plans to jump into the housing market — or not.
Key findings
53% of homebuyers are more likely to buy a home in the next year, due to the coronavirus outbreak.
This is especially true for first-time homebuyers (73%) and millennials (66%). For all buyers who are planning to purchase in the next 12 months, their top two motivations are:
1 – Taking advantage of record-low mortgage rates (67%).
2 – Being able to save a larger down payment because of reduced spending (32%).
Nearly two-thirds (65%) say the coronavirus pandemic has impacted how much money they plan to spend on a new home.
Among this group of prospective homebuyers, 44% plan to buy a less expensive home and the remaining 21% want a more expensive home. Among the latter group, 28% of first-time buyers say they’ll buy a pricier home, while just 17% of repeat buyers agree.
