By Ali Wolf | Builder
The strength in the housing market today is driven by nearly every buyer type, which allows for different products, price points, and geographies to thrive. Each of these buyer groups share five main motivations for buying a home today, including taking advantage of rising prices, locking in a mortgage with historically low interest rates, the increased savings throughout 2020 and early 2021, the pandemic-induced lifestyle changes, and the intangible psychological effect of “fear of missing out.” Each buyer group, however, also has its own unique set of motivations and risks that are important to understand when trying to forecast housing growth.
After a brief pause, the housing market flourished in 2020, and Zonda’s forecast calls for another great year in 2021. The current enthusiasm stems primarily from today’s buyers. Of the eight main home buyer groups, seven of them are fully engaged in the housing market today. Foreign buyers, the eighth group, have some limiting factors related to COVID-19 that are holding back the full potential of the cohort. See the table for the eight groups and the main motivations for each, as well as buyer-specific analysis below.
