Share of Prospective Buyers Active in Market Increases

The share of prospective home buyers who are actively engaged in the process to buy a home rose to 49% in the second quarter of 2022, after declining for three straight quarters.  The pivot is likely driven by less competition from buyers who have exited the market, which has encouraged many of those remaining to become active buyers.

Except for the South, the share of prospective buyers actively searching for a home rose in every region between the first and second quarters of 2022: Northeast (50% to 54%), Midwest (40% to 51%), and West (46% to 57%).

In the second quarter of 2022, the share of active buyers who have been looking for a home for 3+ months fell to 63%, down from 67% in the previous quarter.  The share is at its lowest point in almost two years (since the third quarter of 2020, when it was 62%). Before the pandemic (between the first quarters of 2018 and 2020), fewer than 60% of active buyers shopped for a home for 3+ months.

**Results come from the Housing Trends Report (HTR) – a research product created by the NAHB Economics team with the goal of measuring prospective home buyers’ perceptions about the availability and affordability of homes for-sale in their markets.  The HTR is produced quarterly to track changes in buyers’ perceptions over time.  All data are derived from national polls of representative samples of American adults conducted for NAHB by Morning Consult.  Results are seasonally adjusted.  A description of the poll’s methodology and sample characteristics can be found here.  This is the fifth in a series of six posts highlighting results for the 2^nd quarter of 2022.