Hat tip to the Blur for sending along this cnbc.com article about a Trulia report:
More than a quarter of Americans currently renting houses and apartments have no intention to ever buy a home, according to a survey published on Wednesday.
The survey, by real estate search site Trulia.com, found 27 percent of renters do not plan to ever buy a home. Although 72 percent still expect to buy eventually, that proportion is down from 77 percent six months ago.
Of those who do hope to become homeowners, two-thirds say they will wait two years or more.
This reluctance to buy could drag out the real estate market’s slump longer than many have predicted, Trulia said.
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When you link to the report, you’ll see in the fine print at the bottom:
This July 2010 survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive via its QuickQuery(SM) online omnibus service on behalf of Trulia between July 22-26, 2010 among 2,055 U.S. adults aged 18 years and older. The sample included 1,345 homeowners and 663 renters. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
EDIT: They found 179 out of 663 renters to say that they’ll never buy a home in an on-line survey. But cnbc.com leads with the line, “More than a quarter of Americans currently renting houses and apartments have no intention to ever buy a home”.
I guess that is polling, but the media sure tries to sensationalize every datapoint.
My grandparents were comfortably middle class… and rented their entire adult lives. They lived in nice neighborhoods outside Detroit and Chicago then retired here in San Diego. It was always a better deal to rent than buy.
In some respects I feel like it’s just where I am in the demographics that will keep me from buying a house. Graduate college 2001, by the time you’re ready to buy in 2004 prices are too high, spend 9 years renting and it doesn’t really bother you anymore. I’d buy but not unless prices get obscenely cheap, why do I want to deal with maintenance costs and potentially locking myself into a region during uncertain times.
I’d rather save money in the cash option of a 401K until the older generation is forced to liquidate. Too much demand for yield right now has all asset prices overpriced in a historical sense.
WAY too narrow of a sample group.
Meh, internet polls suck. I wouldn’t put much stock in these figures.
As a renter, I’ll quote Jim: There’s nothing price won’t fix.
second half of fine print:
“Propensity score weighting was used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.”
I don’t know what it means exactly, but it sounds like it’s a less-then-ringing endorsement of the data by the Harris, the people who conducted the poll!.
“In some respects I feel like it’s just where I am in the demographics that will keep me from buying a house. Graduate college 2001, by the time you’re ready to buy in 2004 prices are too high, spend 9 years renting and it doesn’t really bother you anymore.”
This describes me to a tee. I graduated college in ’98 and also feel like I’m part of this demographic, which is only getter bigger. Eventually, the real estate market will need us. Maybe the “we’re not going to give it away” crowd will understand this better when their own children can’t afford a home.
The Blur and livingincali summed up what I was going to add. ’98 Bruin here. Prices got nuts in LA around 2002.
I don’t know the right time to buy a house but thank goodness I do own one.
To all you who graduated and didn’t buy a house I did even though I never made it through high school and it is the best thing I ever did because the house that I live in in a great neighborhood is cheaper than renting a similar place.
My friends kept saying in 01 that the prices were to high the prices were to high…. Well all I know is that if you buy a house now or in 5 years that your mortgage will be 0 in 30 and you can’t say the same about your rent.
The problem happens is because people aren’t willing to take a step back and sacrifice for a while until they can get a head. They thin there first house has to be in La Jolla rather than north park so they rent and rent and rent and then they start complaining the rents to high and they wish they bought. Maybe not right now but there is NO ONE I know who is a renter at 65 who doesn’t wish they owned there place free and clear.
As a matter of fact your a fool if you don’t eventually buy a place and then buy a rental. Then when you are 65 and there is no social security you have no mortgage and your rental gives you the income to live on for the rest of your life.
Try giving up Starbucks and the movies and buy a place (when I don’t know but don’t wait for the perfect time because perfect times only exist in hindsight)
Hey Genius . . .
Go Bruins.
I knew I was in good company here. 😀