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Survey of California Home Buyers

By Stephanie Perrault

Real Estate Agent with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage

September 30, 2008 11:40 AM

Aloha everybody!

As reported by Inman News, a new California Association of Realtors survey called "Survey of California Home Buyers" shows ever growing relationship between real estate sales and use of the Internet.

Here are some excerpts from the article:

The share of home buyers who said the Web was integral to their purchase process continues to grow, according to an annual survey of home buyers by the California Association of Realtors trade group. Meanwhile, the home-search process lengthened compared to the 2007 survey.

The association's "Survey of California Home Buyers" reveals that 78 percent of buyers used the Internet "as an important part of (their) home buying and selection process," compared to 72 percent in 2007.

Buyers who stated that the Internet was an important part of the buying process spent an average 8.3 weeks searching for a home with their agent, up from 5.2 weeks in 2007 and 2.2 weeks in 2006 -- reflecting the slowing sales environment of the past two years.

"Traditional" buyers who said the Internet was not an important part of the buying and selection process took even longer -- 10.3 weeks searching for a home with their agent compared to eight weeks in 2007.

Also, the survey found that traditional buyers saw almost twice as many homes with their agent (23.3 homes) as Internet buyers (12.7 homes).