The North Fulton Blog

I recently came across the following statistics and found them to be very interesting:

Buyers and Sellers:

• Typical buyer was 41 years old;  First time buyer was 32
• One in five homes purchased was newly built
• 85% of buyers used a real estate agent during their search
• 84% of sellers used a real estate agent to list their home
• Typical seller had lived in their home for 6 years
• FSBOs (For Sale By Owner) accounted for 12% of all sales; 40% of FSBOs were transactions between family or close acquaintances
• 80% of buyers used the internet during their search; 74% drove by a home they had seen online

Baby Boomers:

• There are 78 million baby boomers with a median age of 50 years old
• Most boomers plan to live in their home a median of 5 more years;  11% report they are likely to purchase real estate within the next  12 months
• Nearly 80% of boomers who have sold a home worked with a real estate agent
• Small towns and rural areas are the locations most often considered when deciding where to retire

Housing Outlook for 2007:

• 6.422 million existing home sales this year with a median price of $225,300
• 987,000 new home sales
• National homeownership rate - 69%
• Household growth expected to accelerate to 14.6 million new households in the next decade
• Continued low interest rates

As I read thru these numbers, I was very optimistic about the future.  Certainly as a Realtor I'm pleased to see how the future might stack up, but also as a citizen I'm enthused that the real estate industry is not only surviving and but prospering.  Real estate has been a solid investment and looks to be a stable place to continue to invest my hard earned dollars.  We have a growing immigrant population, a higher percentage of minority homeownership, the graying of the baby boomers and the strong projected growth of the echo boomers.  All in all, I'm looking forward to 2007 and beyond.

I'd be interested in hearing your comments.