Home Buyers’ Ideal Community
The most recent research from NAHB, titled “What Home Buyers Truly Desire Study,” delved into the desires of buyers regarding home features and amenities, as well as their preferences for the surrounding community. This inquiry holds significance because a home’s appeal to buyers is not isolated; it is closely linked to the community it resides in, which buyers assess as thoroughly as the home itself.
According to the NAHB, our findings reveal that the ideal community offers three main attributes: convenience, walkability, and a suburban feel. This conclusion is gleaned from the top five features buyers most want in a community, which are being close to retail space (e.g., pharmacy, grocery store) (70%), near a park area (66%), walking/jogging trails (66%), a walkable community (pathways connecting homes to transportation, shopping, etc.) (65%), and a typically suburban community (64%).
In terms of the overall location where buyers would prefer to purchase a home, 53% would like to buy in the suburbs (either close-in or outlying), a rural area (25%), or the central city (downtown or outside of it) (23%). The study also asked buyers about the farthest distance they are willing to travel one-way from home to work. For the typical buyer, that sweet spot is 11.3 miles—which is not surprising given that most report a desire to live in the suburbs.
