According to a new report by Veritas Urbis Economics, the landscape of buyers is changing in surprising ways as compared to 35 years ago.
According to this Housing Wire article by Kelsey Ramirez:
- the share of women as buyers has increased from 18.9% in 1981 to 46.4% in 2017,- single women homebuyers make up 18.9% of all buyers, when it was just 9.1% in 1981,
- the share of households over 55 increased to 27.8% in 2017 (it was 16.1% in 1981),
- homebuyers under 35 made up 52% of all buyers in 1981, they are now under 34%.
How does it play out in the Bay Area of San Francisco, the Silicon Valley?
I don't think we fall within those stats very well when it comes to age. In my (limited) experience, in the local market, there are quite a few younger households among the buyers, and as far as households over 55, they make up a lot of the sellers, not buyers: as people age, they are likely to sell their home at some point, and in that case they most often leave the area. Typically this demographic segment does not buy in the Valley as prices and property taxes are too high for the retired population. Although we do have a portion of the elderly buyers who are moving down, after selling a property that has become too large or far away for them.
Thank you for reading,
Francis
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