News Stories Not the Driving Force Behind Home Buying
The nation’s prospective home buyers may derive some of their information on the housing market from the news media, but at the end of the day the things that matter far more when they are deciding whether to make a purchase include the price of the new home, mortgage interest rates and their housing needs, according to a new nationwide survey commissioned by NAHB.
“While the majority of the households we polled indicated that they found the media a reliable source of information on the housing market, what they read in the newspaper, saw on television or heard on the radio was no substitute for actually going out and shopping the market,” said Thomas Riehle, a partner in RT Strategies, which conducted the research for NAHB.
“When people are actually thinking about buying a home, they are driven by the details of how it will impact their family budget and lifestyle and contribute to their long-term wealth, and that gives them a much closer perspective on the market than what can be conveyed in news coverage,” Riehle continued. ...
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