A new survey suggests a generation primed for first-time homeownership is more likely to replace physical walkthroughs with digital tools.
Excerpt via AD
Will millennials still want to shop for a home with a 30-year mortgage the same way they order lunch once the housing market cools off and the masks go into storage? Time will tell. But as the distinction between seeing and “experiencing” a property continues to break down, future generations may come to consider the idea of leaving the comfort of their own homes in order to buy a new one as quaint and antiquated.
A new survey from Zillow yielded some surprising findings about just how willing millennials are to pull the trigger and become homeowners without ever setting foot on the grounds of a prospective property.Specifically, 39% of millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996, per Zillow’s methodology) say they’d feel comfortable buying a home that they’ve only ever seen online. A further 59% of millennials say they’d be at least somewhat comfortable putting down an offer based on a virtual—but not in-person—walkthrough of a given property.
The results are timely for a generation whose members have reached, or are rapidly approaching, 34—the typical age for a first-time home buyer. And notably, millennials were more willing than other generations in Zillow’s survey of more than 2,000 Americans to become homeowners over the internet. That’s slightly more than the respective 36% of younger Gen Z–ers who felt the same, and far greater than their Gen X (19%) and baby boomer (7%) counterparts.
As the generation who came of age alongside the internet, millennials were most likely to utilize the digital home-browsing tools that have emerged during the pandemic. A full 82% of millennials surveyed said they’d like to use 3D home tours during the shopping process, with a further 85% expressing interest in interactive digital floor plans.
“It’s clear that strong demand from the next generation of buyers will keep real estate technology in place long after the pandemic is over,” Zillow senior vice president of product Matt Daimler said in a press statement. “Digital tools rapidly adopted during the pandemic not only make home shopping safer, they make it faster and easier.”
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