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Reasons Home Buyers Are Not Buying

I just finished a webinar at John Burns Real Estate Consulting that provided some insight and clarification about the reasons home buyers are not buying. Some of this is common knowledge but I like to have good reference data available in any discussion with listing clients. The source of this info is the John Burns Real Estate Consulting Survey of 240 Home Building Executives, December 2008.

The reasons are ranked by the percentage of buyers impacted

Concerns about economy and jobs........... = 36%
Cannot sell existing home..................... = 29%
Worried about further home price declines = 20%
Credit/Qualification issues...................... = 10%
Lack of down payment........................... = 5%

The good news is the current actions by the govt. and plans for future actions, assuming they are approved, appear to be focused on the economy and jobs as well as increasing money supply in the market to provide funds for home loans.

My concern is for the govt.'s execution and their ability to establish accurate measures of effectiveness to use for program evaluation and revision of their plans as required to properly address and resolve these issues.

Posted by George Bennett, Sole Proprietor, GRI, ABR on 01/05/2009 06:12 PM

Comments (10)

Reason Home Buyers Are Not Buying in the ActiveRain Channel

housing stabilization, financial crisis, housing market crisis

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10 Comments on Reasons Home Buyers Are Not Buying

JAN

Good post. It's good to see that brokern down. Thank you

Those numbers certainly aren't comforting, but they do explain the decline in sales here in Pa. The real question is "What can we do about it"? Is there anything we can do about it?

You are welcome Bethan and Suesan. I appreciated the clarity and thought that it was worth sharing. I can't believe I'm saying this but it looks like our govt. really is trying to apply resources in the areas where it will make the most difference. There is much more to do and in my opinion the quicker they get help to main street the better for all of us.

Great post - Here in the Sacramento area, our number of sales are up significantly from last year at this time. However, our prices in most areas are down.

I know this is killing me....2009 is starting off a little sluggish...hopefully after the inauguration..things will get on track..

Thanks Myrl. I'm glad to here that sales are up.

Konnie, You and I both are hopeful that the new administration will get things on track.

JAN

Thanks for sharing these numbers...it's all about consumer confidence, isn't it?

Yes it is. How do we spell consumer confidence ...? Investing more than 300 billion to stabilize the banks and AIG. Investing more than 500 billion to by mortgage backed securities to stabilize the financial markets. Investing more than 15 billion in the auto industry to preserve more than 250,000 jobs. Cutting taxes and creating jobs. But in my opinion, confidence will not return until we stablize the housing market which I think will require revision of the bankruptcy laws and a govt investment of approximately 250 billion.

JAN

George,

Thank you for the data (percentage breakdown) with regards to the reasons why home buyers are not buying. I agree with you that consumer confidence will not return until we stabilize the housing market.

Thanks for the feedback Gerry. Happy Sales to you.

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