If you’re in the market for a new home, there are many stressors that naturally factor into the process. If you happen to have children, however, a completely new layer of stress is added to the process.
According to the results of the recently released 2018 Moving with Kids Report from the National Association of REALTORSⓇ, real estate consumers with children under the age of 18 are confronted with a unique set of needs that play out in the home-buying and -selling process. Here are some of the findings from the report that depict those needs:
Buyers with children tend to purchase larger homes than their childfree counterparts. The average buyer with children under 18 purchases a 2,100-square-foot home with four bedrooms and two bathrooms, while the average buyer with no children chooses a 1,750-square-foot home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Both groups prefer a single-family, detached house.
Schools are a critical factor. Fifty percent of buyers with children say the quality of a neighborhood's school district is important, compared to 11 percent of buyers without children. Convenience and proximity to schools is also a crucial consideration, with 45 percent saying it’s an important factor.
More than a quarter of all buyers with children, 27 percent, said childcare expenses delayed the process of buying a home. Those expenses also have an impact on the buying process, forcing buyers with children to make compromises on the house they purchase. Thirty percent of these buyers compromised on the size of their home, 29 percent compromised on the price of the home, and 22 percent on the condition of the home.
When it comes to selling a home, 24 percent of those with children choose to sell because their house is too small. Only 8 percent of people without children at home sold their house for the same reason.
For sellers with children, urgent is the word that most often describes their selling situation: 26 percent of sellers with children qualified their need to sell as 'very urgently,’ compared to only 14 percent of sellers without children.
If you’re in the market for a new home, there are many stressors that naturally factor into the process. If you happen to have children, however, a completely new layer of stress is added to the process.
