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First Time Home Buyers Finding House Online Studies done by Pew Internet and American Life Project found that many fist-time buyers and peoples who have previously owned home are looking for their home on the Internet. Pew’s research discovered that over 35% of all Internet users, about 40 million Americans, have searched for homes online. An average of 3 million people per day shop for homes online.
The survey, which lasted from March to May 2002 and looked at 2,259 web users, found that over 36% of the country’s 11 million web users had looked for houses on the Internet. In 2002, only 27% of the country’s 89 million web users had searched for homes.
The quantity of people who look for homes online has increased by over 65% since March of 2002, when only 24 million people in the United States had done so. The average number of people per day who did housing searches had doubled from 1.7 million people in March 2000.
The Pew study found some other interesting things:
- 47% of Internet users who are 18-29 years old have done online housing searches, contrasted with 37% of those 30-49 years old, and only 25% of those 50-64 years old.
- The people who look for houses online are comparatively evenly distributed across all income brackets, though those with advanced academic degrees are more likely to have used the Internet.
- 62% of all online real estate shoppers have used the Internet for three years or more, and 58% use the Internet every day.
- 58% of online house hunters are single.
- 35% of people with slower or dial-up connections used the Internet to look for houses, while 46% of faster, broadband users have used it.
- More than half of all Internet house hunters live in the suburbs.
- 36% are employed in managerial or professional capacities.
Pew conducted another survey in 2002 that showed that 8 million people in the United States who bought or rented new residences within the past two years stated that the online market was influential and essential to their purchase.
In a 2001 study, the NAR discovered that over 40% of everyone who found a new home used the web to research and shop, and almost 65% said that it cut down on the time it took to find a home.
ComScore, a research company, conducted a study that discovered that in July 2002 online real estate had the second highest growth rate of all online divisions. From June to July 2002, there was a 15% increase, bringing the total number of online shoppers up to 23 million. The growth continued through August and continues to grow, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.
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