Lancaster PA Luxury Real Estate - 2008 Home Buyers/Sellers Profile Report for Pennsylvania Part I

Released today by the Pennsylvania Associates of REALTORS (PAR) was the Annual Home buyers and Sellers report for the state of Pennsylvania.This report was based off the results of an 8 page questionaire that was mailed to 133,000 consumers who purchased a home from July 2007 to June 2008. Below are the summarized findings and highlights of this report from 10,053 usable responses.. 

Characteristics of 2008 Pennsylvania Home Buyers 

• 46% of all recent home purchases came from 1st time home buyers compared to 41% nationally.
  
• 75% of those 1st time home buyers were 25-34 years old.
• 68% of those buyers had a strong desire to own a home
• 43% of those buyers reported being active online using social networks such as Facebook.
• Married couples presented 59% of all purchases. 
• First time home buyers in PA had a medium income of $36,300 compared to $60,600 nationally.
• The medium income of all PA buyers was $71,700 compared to $74,900 nationally.

Characteristics of Pennsylvania Homes Purchased 

• 62% of homes purchased were detached single family homes.
• 9% of all recent purchases consist of new homes.
• Past residences of new home buyers were within 10 miles of their new home.
• The median price of all PA homes was $195,000 compared to $204,000 nationally.
• 84% of all home buyers stated that commuting costs were fairly important factors.
• PA Homes purchased ran at about 1,760 square ft in size on average.
• 3% purchased a foreclosed home with an additonal 32% considering it.

How buyers found their dreamhome

• 35% of home buyers first found out about their purchased home from a real estate professional.
• 88% of all home purchases went through a real estate agent or broker
  
• First time buyers found their agents through a referral by a friend,neighbor or family member.
• 37% reported using the interenet as the first step in their home buying process.
• 39% found their home on the internet, compared to 32% nationally.
• only 9% of first time home buyers contacted a Real Estate Professional to start.
• 90% of home buyers used a Real Estate Professional during their home search.
• Home buyers searching online accounted for 89%. 
• The average online user was 36 years old and viewed up to 10 homes. 
• The typical home buyer who did not use the internet was 54 years old and saw a medium of 6 homes.

How buyers viewed PA Real Estate Professionals

• 94% of buyers reported having interest to using the same realtor again in the future.
  
• 81% of buyers found those agents to be extremely valuable source of information.
  
• In regards to Honesty and Integrity, 85% were satisfied with their Realtor.

Characteristics of 2008 Pennsylvania Home Sellers

• A whopping 96% of sellers reported their home was advertised on the internet.
• The average time on market for a home was 8 weeks.
• According to sellers, 76% of Realtors offered a broad range of services.
• The typical home seller owned their residence for eight years.
• 71% of home sellers contacted only 1 agent prior to choosing one to represent them.
• 89% of sellers used a Real Estate Professional.
• It was reported that 40% of sellers reported using a referral in their decision making process.
• On Average, recent sellers sold their homes at 97% of the listing price.
• 58% of home sellers upgraded their home from their previous residence.
• In order to attract buyers, 56% of sellers used incentives offering assistance w/ closing costs.
• 48% of home sellers did not reduce their asking price before their home sold.

How sellers viewed PA Real Estate Professionals

• 57% were pleased with their real estate agent and reported interest to use them again.
• Interestingly enough, that same number represented sellers who used a previous agent.
• In regards to repeat sellers, that same percentage used the same agent as before.
• Up to 52% of home sellers were satisfied with the overall selling process.
• 34% reported choosing their realtor based on his/her reputation.

For Sale By Owners and Pennsylvania Real Estate

• 66% of FSBO's reported having difficulty selling their home without an agent.
• Nationally 13% of all home sellers did not use a real estate professional compared to 9% in PA.

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What we found interesting was the fact that only 9% of first time home buyers contacted a Real Estate professional to start their home buying process. This strongly suggests that the internet is becoming a staple ingredient to finding ones' dream home. Furthermore, the fact that up to 65% found out about their dream home from a source other than a realtor, is yet another fact to support that the internet is becoming a major source of information for home buyers. The report did not mention where buyers were specifically finding their homes online, but there's a defenite benefit to being visible on major social media networks such as zillow, trulia and perhaps here on Active Rain as it only increases the chance that the public will find you and contact you to list with them.

It was interesting to note that 89% of sellers still ended up using a real estate professional as opposed to 90% of buyers. Also when taking into account that 90% of sellers used the internet to list their home, It would appear therefore that once a first time buyer goes through the home buying process, they quickly learn from a Realtor how to get more noticed online.

About 1/5 of all sellers mentioned they had no choice to sell at the time and this was comparable to national rates. First time home buyers tended to wait for the most opportune time to buy based on affordability. 

Since 2001, the percentage of people using the internet to find their home has increased from 8% to 32%. As mentioned in the summary, Pennsylvania homeowners are very internet savvy as 39% of them currently find their dream home after searching online. This also relates relatively to the decrease we see in the amount of buyers using a realtor to get their home information as the # has decreased from 48% to 34% currently.

In the next couple days, we will try to dissect this information and compare it to last years report to see how trends have changed in this state specifically in regards to the above summary. 

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