Kira Byrd, who is in her 30s, started her homebuying journey in Alabama slightly more than two years ago with a goal of buying an existing home.
Byrd went to a few open houses, but those experiences exposed her to a harsh reality tied to buying existing properties.
"My initial few tours made me realize that the repairs, upgrades and changes that those homes required were costly and — not only that — they would take longer to complete," Byrd of Birmingham, told Homes.com. "That put me in the field of new construction."
Byrd's story is becoming more commonplace, a new Homes.com survey suggests. The typical person looking to buy a new home is a college-educated woman between the ages of 25 and 34, the survey found. Byrd, an accountant and hairstylist, purchased her newly built house in Birmingham two years ago, she said.
For its New Construction: What Buyers Want Survey, Homes.com partnered with YouGov in May to poll more than 1,000 people age 25-plus who have incomes of at least $50,000 and either purchased a new home in the past two years or plan to buy a newly built property in the next two. See the full methodology.
The results found that 53% of respondents looking to buy new are women and that the typical owners of such properties are ages 65-plus (31%).
Byrd said she originally wanted to buy an existing home because she "liked the idea of living in a developed neighborhood." She eventually bought the newly constructed home because, in part, she enjoyed picking out the layout and fixtures "rather than having to adapt to what someone had selected."
"It was very empowering to enter a space that had been constructed based on my needs," she said. "It also made me feel like I am beginning anew with a house look that represents who I am now."
The people looking to buy new homes are ...
Among other data points, the survey gives a demographic profile of Americans who are looking to purchase a newly built home soon. For example, across both genders, 35% of people looking to buy new have a household income between $75,000 and $125,000, the survey found. Meanwhile, 37% of survey respondents looking to buy new are in a one—or two-person household.
The survey also found that 48% of respondents have one child. Most respondents looking to buy a newly constructed home live in the South or the West. Nearly half of the respondents said they wanted homes in suburban neighborhoods as opposed to rural areas, while 27% sought urban settings.
No matter where the home rests, the idea of purchasing a house that's uniquely your own is motivating both men and women to buy, one Virginia homebuilder said.
"It’s rarely just one reason people choose to build a home," said Justin Olewack, president of Bolt Builders, a Vienna-based custom homebuilder. "More often, it’s a combination of factors: the desire for a fully personalized design built to grow with you over time, a prime location that fits their lifestyle and the modern efficiency older homes can’t match."